ulsterman at vancouvercondo.info 4 May 2010 8:15 am -
“The market has remained solvent longer than I can remain publicly bearish. I’m now in the closet – been wrong so long that I make only neutral comments when the inevitable real estate conversation turns to “but we are different here”.”
My worry is this. In the Ireland, 1 in 5 houses are empty. Entire housing developments have become ghost towns. The Irish economy is on the edge of bankruptcy and Ireland is one of europe’s economic PIIGS. HOWEVER, after 2-3 years of this calamity, prices are down maybe a 1/3. My concern is that Ireland is on the edge of the abyss and yet their prices aren’t off 70% (Vegas -style). How many empty houses and condo’s do we have in Vancouver? Is our economy staring into the abyss? Could we really only be looking at a 20-25% price drop?”
vancouver IS different than ireland. u can’t compare empty condos just to say that prices will drop, it’s more than that.
I know how you feel, Ulsterman. I look at English RE and see that their prices have been rising again despite the financial turmoil of their economy and banking industry. I see stock markets leaping and doing flips despite common sense (and Mark Carney) telling me that you don’t blow off the biggest recession since the dirty thirties in 8 months. What is keeping all this afloat?!