This story has been mentioned before, but this looks like the end of it. The RCMP has removed the condo owners.
RCMP escorted Cheng-Fu Bea from his home of 17 years under a court order issued last month that ruled the Beas must sell.
“The lawyer used the RCMP to force me out of my unit. It’s abuse,” said a visibly distressed Bea. “Where can I go? I have no place to go.”
Ah, that condo owning lifestyle!
Remember Friday?
That’s the day when we post our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend – our so called ‘Friday free-for-all!’
Slipped in there with 20 minutes to spare!
What? You’ve never forgotten to update a blog with a regular feature you’ve been running for years?
Here’s a few links to kick off the chat:
-IMF spotlight on booms and busts
-Who wants a depreciation report?
-Steele on whose side?
-Definitely not Poloz fault
-Dutch disease.. is that bad?
-
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
You want the pride of ownership.
And maybe buying a condo is like training wheels for real home ownership.
You get the practice of paying property tax and maintenance.
But over at the Globe and Mail Rob Carrick is trying to talk down the market again – he says maybe you should rent the condo and save the difference on the cost of buying.
“I would say buyers in their 20s probably won’t live in that condo for five years,” Mr. Fleming said. “They’re going to either outgrow it, or find a mate and want a bigger, better or different place.”
Even if you meet someone and live together in your condo, you’ll probably want to move when you have kids. Mr. Fleming said an increasing number of couples are starting families in condos, but a house is still seen by most as the best place to do this.
Moving from a condo you own to a house will cost you a lot. If you used a real estate agent to sell the place, you might pay a $15,000 commission plus HST to sell a $300,000 condo. “It’s expensive to move,” Mr. Fleming said. “Hopefully you purchased that condo for $250,000.”
Read the full article here.
Hey! Look at that!
It’s the end of another week.
Let’s get this party started!
It’s Friday Free-for-all time. This our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend.
Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:
-Get well Skook!
-What is fair value?
-Cheapest places to buy citizenship
-Do away with the ALR?
-Who’s the racist?
-Good investments in Canadian RE?
-Some local condo incentives
-Euro rates go subzero
-Extrapolations for fun and profit
-
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
Here’s an extrapolation for you: Altus group does home appraisal and valuations.
They looked at the numbers and say if everything carries on as usual the average home price on the west side will be 7 million in 10 years.
“If [the current] trend continues, in the year 2024 the average price for older [detached housing] stock could be greater than $2 million on the Eastside and $7 million on the Westside of Vancouver. We are not saying this will happen, we are simply applying the math from the past decade and extrapolating forward to the next decade,” said Pedro Tavares, Altus Group’s director of research, valuation and advisory.
And as any investor will tell you, past performance practically guarantees future results right? So what are you waiting for? Get out there and buy something!
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is the crown corporation that backs the majority of Canadian mortgage products. They have recently decide to magnanimously share more info about the Canadian mortgage market:
The changes in the CMHC’s disclosure come after some economists had demanded CMHC share more of its information about the market. Among them was CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal who published a report suggesting that the lack of market information makes its harder to get an accurate picture of the stability of the market.
Read the full article in the Financial Post.
Hey! It’s the end of another work week!
Lets do our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend.
It’s Friday Free-for-all time!
Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:
-Vancouvers problems start at home
-Condo battle
-Affordable New York
-As long as rates stay low..
-Yellen driving our market?
-Salaries to buy in 25 cities
-
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
If you’ve been in Vancouver for a while you might remember the ‘leaky condo crisis’.
That crisis peaked about 15 years ago, and its still a common site to see condo buildings under tarps.
Unfortunately there are some reports we’re not out of the woods yet on building maintenance and construction quality.
This article in the Vancouver Sun talks goes over the crisis and how many moist condo units may still be out there.
In response to the last round of the crisis, the government introduced a new requirement for depreciation reports on strata property.
However, stratas have the option to exempt themselves from the requirement by agreement of three-quarters of their members.
Gioventu said that provision was put in to accommodate commercial-property stratas or strata-ownership arrangements on bare land where owners build their own homes and have no common services.
He said there there is no doubt some older residential strata corporations are exempting themselves because they know a depreciation report is “going to give them an ugly picture,” but the market is going to catch up with those situations when banks refusing financing on sales without the reports.
Gioventu said if there is a common theme, it is that “strata corporations have not been maintaining their buildings,” which is evident in problems that are cropping up with building decks and balconies, roofing systems and windows.
If you’re shopping for a condo how important is a depreciation report to you? Are you concerned about the history of leaky condos in Vancouver?
Well here we are, the end of another week.
That means it’s time for another Friday Free-for-all!
This is our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend. Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:
-Russia/China shakes up LNG market
-No housing or mortgage crisis
-Overdue for a full blown correction?
-CMHC: get ready for soft landing
-Rennie: focus on old people
-Millenials richer with more debt
-Greatest RE bubble not done bursting
-
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
The Condo King has emerged from hibernation and seen no shadow: that means two more years of bubble.
“We no longer live in Vancouver. We live on the planet.”
With that remark, renowned Vancouver realtor Bob Rennie attempted to explain the evolution of this city’s exasperating housing market.
He made the comment last week to a conference of the Urban Land Institute, an organization representing realtors and developers who intimately understand what the condo guru was referring to.
Full article in the Vancouver Sun.
