Tag Archives: building

Open Topic

FFFA! Election Time

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91 Comments

Hey! It’s the end of another work week!

That means it’s Friday Free-for-all time here on VCI. This is our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend.

Depending on when you read this, you may already know who’s mayor.

Alrighty, let’s get to the links to kick off the chat!

–BC leads decline in starts
–Mayor race neck and neck
–All about geography and weather
–BC vs Ontario economy
–Former city planner says..
–Ready to move to an island?
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So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

Open Topic

Friday Free-for-all!

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111 Comments

Well well well, you made it to the end of another work week!

That means it’s time for our regular Friday free-for-all post. This is our regular end of the week news Roundup and open topic thread for the weekend. Here are a few recent links to kickoff the chat:

–Canadians feel financial squeeze
–Growing number lack emergency funds
–Fitch: Canadian market 20% overvalued
–CMHC could force banks to pay deductible
–Van & Toronto: Record building permits
–How to go broke on $400k a year
–Live with renters to help pay mortgage
–Complaints over monster homes
–Rejection of Chinese steel delays bridge
–Can China end BC school strike? (1:45)

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

Canada, economy, predictions, prices

Falling, not crashing.

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54 Comments

Here’s a nice article that should reassure you.

The housing market in Canada is forecast to fall, but not crash like in the US.

In fact the first three paragraphs each repeat that this will NOT be like a US style crash.

Canadian housing prices will fall 10% over the next several years and homebuilding will slow sharply in 2013, but the country’s recent property boom is not expected to end in a U.S.-style collapse, according to a Reuters poll.

The survey of 20 forecasters published on Friday showed the majority believe the Canadian government has done enough to rein in runaway prices, preventing the type of crash that has devastated the U.S. market for years.

“This isn’t a sharp correction, this isn’t a U.S.-style correction, it’s just simply an unwinding of the excess valuation that was created by artificially low interest rates for a long period of time,” said Craig Alexander, chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

“I would emphasize that while a 10 % correction sounds scary, in actual fact, this would be a healthy outcome.”

Just a gentle feather slowly drifting to the safety of the ground.

Read the full article here.

BC, debt, economy, predictions

We built this city on real estate

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103 Comments

From a Vancouver Sun article about shifting tax burdens for the province posted by New Junky:

The convention comes on the heels of a business taxation report that suggests provincial and federal government decisions have had negative financial implications for local government.

The report by an expert panel also suggests the province doesn’t have any more money to dole out, Moore said. But he takes heart in a recommendation that the province work with municipalities to find alternate forms of funding to provide services.

“We really feel there hasn’t been a lot of cooperation,” he said.

Delegates’ resolutions include using development cost charges to fund projects such as recreation centres, fire halls and flood mitigation. Moore said other suggestions will focus on grants and shifting existing taxes — such as income, corporate and sales taxes — from the province to the municipalities, where they originate.

Moore noted changes in everything from improved workplace standards in fire halls to cameras in jail cells and rifles for RCMP vehicles have a financial effect on local government.

“We have to pay the price with no revenue coming with it,” he said.

It seems that local governments are becoming increasingly dependent on Development Cost Charges.

It seems like a bad way to pay for essential services like fire halls. How are we going to pay for these things after all the real estate development stops/slows because of a real estate crash???

Are city councils going to approve real estate development projects that are bad for the community simply because city finances are addicted to Development Cost Charges just to keep the fire halls functioning???

Read the full article here.

Open Topic

Friday Free-for-all!

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188 Comments

It’s the end of another work week and the start of another month! Hope you paid your rent and your mortgage bills and still have money in the bank.

The month of May wrapped up with higher than normal listings and lower than normal sales. We’ll have to wait to see what the official word is, but it sounds like we may see a bit of softening in some detached prices and little bump up in condo prices.

Let’s do 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:

–MOI 6.66, the MOI of the beast
–Inventory graph back into record high
–Teranet sales pair dries up
–Will bloggers ruin the perfect market?
–Okanagon sees huge foreclosure spike
–How much is your commute?
–Building jobs boom
–Van Commercial RE booms
–RBC: Ownership costs climbing
–Rising prices means confidence for Toronto
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So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!