“I hire positions at a prestigious government employer [here in Vancouver] with an amazing benefit and pension package. I’ve noticed a serious drop off in resumes. 4 years ago I would see 40+ resumes for a professional IT position. The last post garnered 7. I didn’t necessarily connect it with the real estate market, but it does beg the question of where all these people clamouring to live in the “best place on earth” are.
I also perform stand up comedy on the side. There are 4 (soon to be 5) decent places to perform in Vancouver. I recently took a look at the scene in Toronto and there are dozens, you could do a different room every night for a month and never duplicate. You move to Vancouver, you make a lot of sacrifices to look at mountains and avoid a couple of months of snow. I still prefer it to any other city in Canada (I’ve lived in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary), but it’s far from a slam dunk.”
- LexLimo at VREAA 18 Sept 2011 11:50am
Most Recent Comments:
- Real Estate Tsunami on Chat Thread
- forex conquest review on Gord Goble in Local Newspapers – Vancouver RE ‘House Of Cards’ Will “Implode”
- rod_jonsson on Chat Thread
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- Leona on MSM Continue To Pump RE – “What’s next? “Cigarettes found to extend lifetime: Marlboro?”
- rod_jonsson on Chat Thread
- Nemesis on Chat Thread
- rp1 on Chat Thread
- Farmer on Chat Thread
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- Nemesis on Chat Thread
Type of Anecdote
- 01. He Said, She Said (247)
- 02. Profiting from the Boom (441)
- 03. Changed my Life (103)
- 04. Changed my Career (38)
- 05. Where do Buyers get the money? (958)
- 06. Held my Nose and Leapt (96)
- 07. Avoiding Vancouver (375)
- 08. Overextended Buyers (1182)
- 09. Delaying Buying (315)
- 10. Demoralized Renters? (362)
- 11. Regrets about Investing in RE (417)
- 12. Effects of Development (274)
- 13. 2010 Olympics Related (74)
- 14. Social Effects of the Boom (1255)
- 15. Misallocation of Resources (958)
- 16. Missed The Boat? (236)
- 17. The Froogle Scott Chronicles (27)
- 18. Spot The Speculator (171)
- 19. BlastRadiusPostCards (17)
- 20. The Limitless Demand Argument For Ongoing Market Strength (70)
- 21. Vancouver RE-Verse [Found Poems] (8)
- 22. RE References In Popular Culture (41)
- 23. Jumping The Shark (1)
- 24. Policies On Housing (10)
- 25. Epigrams For The Bubble (1)
- 26. Premature Calls Of "Bottom" (3)
- 27. Seller Panic (3)
- 28. Erroneous Causation Theories For Falling Prices (7)
- 29. Bubblespeak (1)
- Uncategorized (176)
Blogroll
- 01 Vancouver Condo Info
- 02 AmericaCanada [retired, no archive]
- 03 Housing Analysis
- 04 RealEstateTalks BC
- 05 Vancouver RE and then some
- 06 Whispers from the Village on the Edge of the Rainforest
- 07 Greater Fool
- 08 Canada Bubble
- 09 Rob Chipman's blog
- 10 YatterMatters
- 11 condohype [retired; archives available]
- 12 vancouver (un)real estate
- 13 Agent Will's Stats [retired]
- 14 Landlord Rescue
- 15 The Economic Analyst
- 16 Canadian Housing Price Charts
- 17 Hoodsurf [retired Jun 2011]
- 18 World Housing Bubble
- 19 Vancouver Price Drop
- 20 North American Economics
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Latest Anecdotes:
- Chat Thread
- Taking A Break
- “My best guess: this property is now an ‘investment hold’ and will be built ‘when prices recover’. Good luck on that!”
- Man Loses $745,000 Vancouver Condo Deposit
- Graphic – Degrees of Housing Overvaluation in Canada
- The Rare Individual With A Negative Ownership Premium
- Advice Regarding Renting In Vancouver, Please – “Unfortunately, the Vancouver rental stock is absolutely atrocious. It just seems like every landlord is looking for someone to pay 100% of their mortgage on a crappy place through rental income.”
- “I just visited Manhattan for a week, and happened to snap some real estate ads on both the Upper West and Upper East sides of the island. Compare to Vancouver. It simply doesn’t compute.”
- Ben Rabidoux In Vancouver Next Week
- “The mortgage company told me they were calling in my 40-year, 0-down mortgage. I have paid nearly sixty thousand dollars towards it, but, nearly five years in, I have yet to touch the principal.”
- ‘Vancouver City Hall: Housing Report Card 2012′; Plus Revised Version
- “My folks find themselves at 65 still owing half the value of their home and recreation property to the bank. After almost 30 years of ownership in the BPOE and a number of boom markets, they have very little to show for it.”
- “Rent for $2,200 a month or buy and have a mortgage of $4,310 per month. Why would anyone buy?”
- “They were talking about two couples they knew who had recently bought a lot and planned to each build a house on it and live as neighbours.”
- Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association Annual First-Time Buyer Seminar Attendance Plummets
- Mom and Pop Get It Wrong In All Markets, Time And Again
- The average British Columbian homeowner is not going to pay off their mortgage by the time they retire.
- “He’s sold all his properties except his current one, which is now for sale. He explained that the market’s currently in crash mode, worst that he’s ever seen.”
- “One of my old high school buddies finally got her mother to sell the family home in Kitsilano – sold for over $1M, monies realized after debt paid off $185K.”
- “I know someone who just declared bankruptcy because her condo was assessed at $150k and she bought it presale north of $250k in 2005 or 2006.”
- Sturdy, With Views – “Calling Froogle Scott!… Is Dr. Scott ‘In The House’?” [Not In This One, Certainly]
- “She said the market was dead in Victoria and that it would remain so for a very long time. I asked how she knew. Her answer was fascinating and should scare the pants off the real estate crowd.”
- Kits Notes – “I’m pretty sure that this is the first 3+ bedroom property of any type that I’ve seen in the 5 years I’ve lived here that is priced below $700K.”
- “A beautiful Belfast home, in the equivalent of 1st Shaughnessy, bought at their RE peak in 2007 for £3.5 million, has now sold for £800K, almost 80%-off. The market didn’t suffer any significant economic shocks. Rates & unemployment didn’t skyrocket. They didn’t build more land. Sentiment just changed and the prices fell and fell.”
- “Two family members of hers are trapped, underwater, in condos on the East Side.”
- “Interprovincial migration is not saying good things about BC’s economy.”
- Vancouver RE: Not As Expensive Provided You Don’t Think – “It’s clear that our perception of affordability has been coloured by living on a continent where housing is unusually inexpensive.”
- More Undisclosed RE Industry Insiders Publicized As Clients – “In 1995, Allan and Karin Hoegg were mortgage-free. But no more. Today their Vancouver home is a valuable source of income as they plan for full retirement.”
- Rumor that some OV units will be reduced by 20%.
- Downside Weights On The Vancouver RE Market – “One of the older guys (over 60) mention to the guy beside him that he and his wife were thinking about selling their family home, and renting, in order to get some of the money that was locked up in the house.”
- “My buddy was looking to upgrade to a house in the Coquitlam area. With 200k extra for a home, that’s half of lifetime saving between him and his wife.”
- “I was walking in the Fraser neighborhood yesterday, I noticed that the population, on average, seem to be composed of workers. I belong to the top 5 percent in terms of income. Nevertheless, I cannot afford any of the houses for sale in that neighbourhood.”
- “Vancouver is an urban resort whose value mostly resides in its real estate and not much else.”
- “Rogers Communications is expanding into RE; aiming to relaunch website; providing critical data that can help potential buyers assess the value of a property from the comfort of their home computer.”
- I’m only 50 and I can just about retire if I want to, all because of a single simple decision – “When prices rebounded to their former highs, then rocketed another 30% higher to what I considered to be totally unsustainable levels, I decided that only a fool would pass up a second opportunity to harvest such a massive non-taxable capital gain, and in 2011 I sold my place.”
- The Vacant Lot of Versailles, Richmond.
- “I don’t think that most people think things are going to crash, just that there is going to be a slight correction, but it was amazing to me how sentiment has changed, and the fact Vancouver RE is too high was just understood.”
- “The ‘investor’ who purchased our house put it up for sale two months later, in January 1981, but the bubble had burst.”
- For A City To Have That Kind Of Vacancy, It’s Like Cancer – “Downtown, the vacant unit rate is so high that it’s as though there were 35 towers at 20 storeys apiece – all empty.”
- “What’s the worst that can happen? You can’t pay your mortgage, so sell your house! No fear.”
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- Chat Thread wp.me/pcq1o-5vD 3 weeks ago
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“prestigious government employer”
Is that like, “safron encrusted shit”?
[Hey, matt... you're making the rest of us grumpy bears look like Pollyannas -ed.]
I’m a newcomer to this website and as I read through older posts (e.g. The Froogle Scott’s), I’m amazed that all this sensible and helpful and honest material is really nowhere else to be found (at least I haven’t found it) in the official public media discourse here. I used to wonder if I was crazy, feeling so upset about what is happening in Vancouver in terms of RE and how expensive it is to live here. The official hype about “the best place on earth” is so widespread. And of course Vancouver does have a lot going for it, but obviously there are a lot of us out there who also feel it’s practically going to hell in a handbasket. I’m still trying to puzzle out why there’s not a more unified and organized protest community here. One commentator (Michael) who grew up in Germany said in one post on another thread, following the hockey riot this summer, that there are definitely organized energies for social protests in Europe. I think there’s a lot more power for constructive (as it were) change in this city that’s just not plugged in. I wish this website had a circulation in the millions.
What are you talking about? We have a very active professional protestor group here. They are at the forefront of every protest for everything ranging from globalization, G7, climate change, free Tibet, etc, as long as they have the interest or gets paid.
congrats. You’ve found your place in the world right next to the other unhappy and pessimistic renters.
Ever wonder why this “sensible” “helpful” and “honest” material can only be found here? Take a look at the quality of the individuals you call your peers
I beg your pardon? I’m sorry, I meant to say something positive about this site.
And as for your congratulations: Actually, we owned our own home for 12 years here and chose to rent, if you think that makes me a better person in your eyes.
There’s new information on the difficulties of being a renter that I was trying to share on this website in case it was useful to others.
Nobody on this site, with the exception of a couple of dedicated trolls (or just one?), seems to be arguing that Vancouver is the best place on earth. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone make that claim, although I’ve come across a couple of self-interested realtors/advertisements posted on this site. All this vehement argument against “best place on earth” may be a battle against a straw man – most happy residents I talk to are more like the OP in stating their preference for Vancouver while being entirely capable of admiring various qualities in other cities and complaining about various problems in Vancouver (real estate being #1 with weather the only close competitor, from what I’ve heard).
It’s like that awful licence plate slogan Campbell instituted – obnoxious boosterism that British Columbians seem to be unanimously opposed to.
It’s interesting that the OP has experienced a decline in numbers of job applicants – possibly/probably linked to the exorbitant cost of housing here. But I think it’s pretty obvious that bigger cities have more to offer in the way of stand-up comedy venues and the like. Bigger isn’t necessarily better, but it almost invariably means that you can find more recreation, entertainment, people who share your niche interests, and so on.
“It’s like that awful licence plate slogan Campbell instituted – obnoxious boosterism that British Columbians seem to be unanimously opposed to.”
–
Sure, one guy has forced millions to parade around with a bumper sticker of which they all humbly disapprove.
We submit you’re underestimating how many have truly convinced themselves that this place is BPOE.
When I registered my car they offered these vanity plates to me, not only did they want me to drive around with that stupid slogan but also charge me more money for it. No thanks.