Vancouver Condo Info

It’s the end of the week, so lets do our economic news round up and open topic discussion. Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

-September new home prices up more than expected
-Canada vs. USA – the new realty
-Putting all your retirement money into your house?
-Home improvement stores fear end of tax credit
-Metro builders ease off discounts in hot market
-Olympic rental scams on the rise
-Canadians are slaves to credit
-Canada Line on track to lose millions over next 15 years
-Conference Board: BC to get gold in 2010.
-The Conference Board prediction from 2008 is here.
-Critics blast condo / stadium mix
-Limp demand will create weak Canadian market
-The carry trade and ‘bubble like conditions’
-only 5% of Americans plan to buy a home in 2010

So what are you seeing out there?  A boom reborn or a double dip recession?  Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

It’s open topic time!  Every Friday we do a round up of recent economic and housing related news stories and discuss these topics through the weekend.  Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately to kick off the discussion:

- A Canadian CMHC driven housing bubble?
- Canadian Gov now the biggest subprime lender?
- The growth of Canadian mortgage debt loads
- BOC expresses ’some concern’ over housing boom
- Canadians would sacrifice vacations to buy home
- US commercial real estate bust looming?
-

So what are you seeing out there?  Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

No longer looking shared a link to this story in the Vancouver Sun over the weekend – The Bank of Montreal has just discovered the secret to affordable real estate in Vancouver: secondary suites.  Simply rent out parts of your home to others to help cover the mortgage.  You may have to wait to use the bathroom, but you’ll have enough money left over at the end of the month to buy some groceries!

Heaney said that on a $580,000 mortgage, which is fairly typical for Vancouver, a buyer would need a family income of around $100,000 a year to carry the payments.

However, throw in rental income of about $1,500 for a suite, and Heaney said the employment income a family would need to support that mortgage would drop below $60,000.

Ulsterman asks the obvious question:

BOM will lend almost 6 times family income? Is this normal?

Are they watching you?  Have you seen the black helicopters?  Are we moments away from bayonet wielding thugs with barking dogs on every street corner?  Really?  Well ok, better warn the world and here’s the thread to do it in.

Over the weekend it seems like concerns over civil rights and law enforcement took over the discussion thread.  We’ve strayed pretty far from the real estate topic, and some posters are unhappy, while others really want to talk about this topic.  So go ahead.  I’ll be removing comments on this topic from the next conversation to keep it more real estate focused. More proof that the freedom of speech is slowly being taken away!

Just remember, you’re still responsible for what you say – the normal rule of law for libel applies.

If you want to control the conversation you can easily start up your own blog on any subject you like.  I recommend either wordpress.com or blogger.com as a simple and quick way to start a blog.

It’s the end of the work week, so let’s do our weekend round up and open topic discussion post.  Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

-Our foresty industry worlds worst performer in 2008
-Real estate market tanking or taking off?
-Riding the real estate roller coaster
-Pamela Anderson: Real estate investment mogul
-Millionaires club sees record drop
-No limit for absurd Realtor ads
-Canadian banks edge won’t last long
-Canadian payrolls continue to decline
-Unemployed? More like Funemployed!

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

From the boom/bust irony department: It appears that the slow down in hectic condo construction means less money to fund the leaky condo repair loan program from the Homeowner Protection Office.  It’s apparently gotten so bad that the HPO is no longer funding leaky condo repair loans.

…Soloshy added that some residents are having extra problems because the HPO has not officially turned them down, but instead is keeping their applications in limbo.

She said this makes it difficult to re-approach other lenders, who will generally consider helping only after someone has been officially turned down by the HPO.

“I had a lot of difficulty proving to the military that HPO wasn’t returning my calls,” Barnes said of getting his military distress loan.

“All I needed was something saying they had run out of funding,” he said. “They wouldn’t even get back to me regarding that.”

The Ritz Carlton work stoppage we reported on last October has been confirmed as a complete project cancelation.  The developer is blaming the ‘global recession:

The half-billion-dollar Ritz-Carlton hotel-condo project in downtown Vancouver is officially dead — a victim of the global recession.

Buyers who purchased luxury condos in the 60-storey tower that was supposed to be built at 1155 West Georgia are getting a letter this week telling them the project has been cancelled.

The letter from lawyers representing developer Holborn Group states that “worldwide economic turmoil” has had a significant negative impact on the sale of units in the project, as it has with most other Metro Vancouver developments.

“As a result, sales have not met the developer’s expectations,” the letter states. ” … We hereby give you notice that the vendor cancels and terminates the contract due to the fact that the vendor has not entered into binding contracts of purchase and sale for at least 75 strata lots in the development.

“As a result of this termination, the contract is now at an end.”

Full article in the Sun.

photo-illustration by reader moldcity.

It’s Friday and if you’ve been here before you know what that means, it’s time for our end of the week news round up post and open topic weekend discussion.  Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

STORMCLOUDS:

-Developer sues condo buyers who try to back out of contracts
-Canadian retail sales see biggest drop since 1998
-Ottawa to run huge deficits for next two years
-US jobless claims hit 26 year high
-Is this a recession or another great depression?

RAINBOWS!

-Optomistic central bank expects speedy rebound
-Vanoc believes unsold olympic village condos will be snapped up
-Why a buyers market is a first timers market
-CREA: Your home may be worth more than you thought!

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent week-end!

note: any conversation on Vancouver, real estate or economics is allowed, please keep it civilized. When posting articles please only quote pertinent points and link to the original instead of pasting the entire article here. Pasting a link into your comment will automatically create a clickable hot-link. Linking to more than one external link within a single comment may cause your submission to get held up in the spam filter.

As we wrap up 2008, I would like to wish you all a wonderful winter and a Happy $104,725.00 Holiday.  If you went shopping for a house in Vancouver last May but haven’t yet bought, that’s how much you’ve saved so far according to local real estate board statistics.

That’s enough to buy a small house or condo outright in one of the US housing bubble markets of California, Arizona or Florida.

Of course those markets have been falling for the last three years, our prices have been dropping for less than six months.  What will Decembers stats show? What about the New Year?

At this point some people are very concerned about the state of the economy, both globally and locally.  I do believe we’re headed for some leaner economic times, but it’s worth keeping perspective.  If you’re reading this website from a warm dry location with a comfortable place to sleep and food to eat, you’re doing ok.  You don’t have to go far in Vancouver to see people that are doing a lot worse.

Enjoy your extra $104,725 and have an excellent New Year, I have a feeling that 2009 is going to be very interesting.

CZ suggests the following poll:

 Loading ...

Alright, you made it to the end of the week.  Here’s our news round-up to kick off the discussion:

-Vancouver Condo Info Wiki!
-Falling BC house prices a reality check
-CBC map of halted Vancouver condo projects
-Vancouver: Cracks appearing in condo land
-Mish: An American view of the Vancouver Market
-BC retail sales continue downward trend
-Don’t worry, be happy!
-Positive news alleviates housing market fear
-Signs of a US housing market bottom?
-Fed rate cut may have little impact

So what are you seeing out there?  Post your news, anecdotes and links here and have an excellent weekend!

note: any conversation on Vancouver, real estate or economics is allowed, please keep it civilized. When posting articles please only quote pertinent points and link to the original instead of pasting the entire article here. Pasting a link will automatically create a clickable hot-link. Thanks!