“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle”
— George Orwell, March 1946
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Type of Anecdote
- 01. He Said, She Said (217)
- 02. Profiting from the Boom (368)
- 03. Changed my Life (94)
- 04. Changed my Career (34)
- 05. Where do Buyers get the money? (701)
- 06. Held my Nose and Leapt (86)
- 07. Avoiding Vancouver (305)
- 08. Overextended Buyers (787)
- 09. Delaying Buying (238)
- 10. Demoralized Renters? (289)
- 11. Regrets about Investing in RE (240)
- 12. Effects of Development (207)
- 13. 2010 Olympics Related (71)
- 14. Social Effects of the Boom (1020)
- 15. Misallocation of Resources (680)
- 16. Missed The Boat? (98)
- 17. The Froogle Scott Chronicles (24)
- 18. Spot The Speculator (128)
- 19. BlastRadiusPostCards (15)
- 20. The Limitless Demand Argument For Ongoing Market Strength (39)
- 21. Vancouver RE-Verse [Found Poems] (6)
- 22. RE References In Popular Culture (11)
- 23. Jumping The Shark (1)
- 24. Policies On Housing (10)
- 25. Epigrams For The Bubble (1)
- Uncategorized (171)
Blogroll
- 01 Vancouver Condo Info
- 02 AmericaCanada
- 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
- 12 vancouver (un)real estate
- 13 Agent Will's Stats
- 14 Landlord Rescue
- 15 The Economic Analyst
- 16 Canadian Housing Price Charts
- 17 Hoodsurf
- 18 World Housing Bubble
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Latest Anecdotes:
- Basement Suite In East Vancouver Sells For $590K
- “A lawyer knocked on the door of my rented house on the Westside of Vancouver this afternoon, and offered me $2.4M. He was going door to door asking if anyone wanted to sell.”
- UBC Condo Selling Pressure?
- Sticky Price Seller Shoots Self In Foot, Slowly – “$488K, listed for 13 months, negative cash flow, unable to come down in price at all due to “circumstances”.”
- Even More Bubble Warnings And Mentions In The Mainstream Media. A Whole Flurry, In Fact.
- West-Side Detached Specifics – “The cycle of buy / tear-down / build / sell is not completing. There are really no sales of new-builds.”
- Vancouver ‘Hotel Condo’ Prices Plummet
- “Crazy Land” – 9% of the working population employed in construction.
- Vancouver’s Too Expensive For Entrepreneurs – “Last night during a meeting we realized that of five, only two of us aren’t thinking about leaving the city in the next year or two.”
- BC Budget: Taxpayer Debt To Support The Construction Industry – “Every young person out there today understands the challenges of getting into the housing market.”
- “Many of my boomer contemporaries think they will “live off the real estate equity” forever.”
- Vancouver – “Where my friends/mom/society/tourists think I live; Where I actually live.”
- Ben Rabidoux, ‘Where We Stand’ – “While it may be too early to call a definitive peak in Vancouver, things aren’t looking good.”
- “I am amazed financial gurus seldom suggest buying a second property. We live in a real estate hot spot. If you buy a house or condo with 25% down and it appreciates by 25%, you have doubled your money.”
- “Comparing Vancouver to NY is about the most preposterous claim I have heard in this lifetime and the next.”
- “I know a lady who spent more time haggling over the price of a table and chairs that was on sale at the Brick than she did buying her condo.”
- Discussion with Tom Davidoff – “A huge fraction of near retirement Vancouverites must have 75%+ of their wealth in home equity.”
- Tom Davidoff’s ‘Fantastic, Pragmatic Lecture’ – “Vancouver RE price future is uncertain, with clear downside risk. Prices could, absolutely, fall 50%. But long run growth is easy to envision, and Vancouver will never be cheap.”
- PostCardsFromTheBlastRadius #15 (2012Teaser) – “Oki CourtOrdereds… LookLikeThis…”
- “You’ve Got A Bubble, Canada” Article #47 – Bloomberg – “Canada Housing Poised for ‘Severe’ Drop”
- What happens to vocal housing bulls after a RE bubble pops?
- Kelowna Foreclosures – “Realtor is worried the number of foreclosures will bring the overall market down, hurting anyone who wants to sell their home; now up against something they didn’t see coming.”
- Buy The Dip! – “There’s yet more indication investors are finally getting the break they need to beef up their portfolios, with the B.C. Realtor association confirming a near-8 per cent dip in the value of properties sold during the first month of the year.”
- ‘The Economist’ Poll – “Are Canadian house prices a bubble waiting to burst?”
- “At coffee break today a guy was reading an ad for one of the housing lotteries. We all looked at the choices (a few houses, condo in North Van, or $1.8M cash). Not a single person would take the cash. Most agreed housing would go up.”
- “I’m ecstatic. My boomer parents called today to say they’ve finally sold our long-time house in cow town. Assessed $490k, listed last fall at $560k, no bite; re-listed at $490k last week, sold at $480k.”
- Open House Investigative Reporting – “He said he considered buying this for the lot value, because lot prices are still going up. However, he also said that he noticed many new/newer houses are not selling at all. This confuses him.”
- ‘The Most Overpriced Housing Market In The Developed World’
- Mayor’s ‘Housing Affordability Task Force’ – “Vancouver must be a city where our children can afford to live and raise their families.”
- “The house and lane house were empty and converted into 7 or 8 suites between the two. The owner couldn’t meet me on time as he was showing one of his other six properties.”
- Tsur Sommerville, Time Machine – “Let’s not let the housing market be driven by a wave of cheap and easy-to-access money.”
- Vancouver Realtor Pam Allen – “Since October, it was like someone turned off the tap. It became absolutely dead.”
- “I’m a Realtor and it’s not a buyers market at all. Based on Vancouver’s historic benchmark price chart I would be hitting the sell button asap.”
- “When I asked why the owner is selling, the realtor said the owner “Has too many properties, wants to get rid of some”…”
- “My wife and I could never buy into a life of servitude to a bank. We just aren’t built to borrow money and don’t consider life as a one track job in order to buy a building.”
- Philadelphia Church of God Trumpets: “Falling house prices is an idea that many Canadians laugh at. Americans laughed too before America’s bubble burst.”
- Avoiding Vancouver, Recent Stories
- “She tells me that she isn’t worried because the prices cannot drop below what she paid.”
- Maclean’s Interviews Two Vancouver Realtors – “Remember: in real estate, people who don’t track the short-term ups and downs tend to do great over the long-run.”
- Canadian Business Housing “Crash!” Cover
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Anecdotes Banks Bears blogs British Columbia Bubble Bulls buyers Canada Capitulation China CMHC Construction Debt Economy Employment Fear Foreign buyers FTBs Fundamentals Government Housing Interest Rates Landlords Life Media Mortgage brokers Okanagan Olympics Ownership Prediction Real Estate Realtors Relationships Rent Retirement RE_ATM sellers Sentiment Speculators Toronto US Vancouver Victoria Visual Anecdote
“Luck never gives; it only lends” – Swedish proverb
“If you don’t know where you’re going, then the journey is never ending”
You can observe a lot just by watching. – Yogi Berra
“Politicians are shitheads.” – Daniel Craig
[UK Independent] – Blair gave politics a licence to schmooze, says Craig:
The 007 star hits out at actors who become political pawns – and the PM who started the trend
http://tinyurl.com/6mbcr8z
Low interest rates is the biggest obstacle in people seeing what is in front of them.
We cannot put all our eggs in one basket. The real estate bubble is bound to happen anywhere in the world. Even China today is at the brink of real estate bubble.
“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”
Saul Bellow
debt never sleeps
I am looking at buying in Vancouver and torn between the obvious paranoia of some people who think the Van RE market is in a bubble and will crash and my belief that Vancouver will always be a safe place to park you money, as long as it is quality. Let me explain – buying a condo which has no direct interest in the underlying land is always a risk, if it has no unique features, (like to die for view) or in an area where where future new buildings will sprout up like daisies on a warm spring day, these are not good investments and over the long run will depreciate. Buying your typical 3BR home in the valley or suburbs with an hour commute, again not a good investment. I believe real estate which has a land component, duplex or Single Family house within 30-45 minutes of the CBD, in a good area will hold it’s value and although we may be in a market where increases are minimal, over the next decade Van RE will prove to be an excellent investment. The reason I believe this are 1) Having traveled all over Canada, given a choice Vancouver is the place to live. 2) China and the Asian Pacific view Vancouver as a safe place to purchase in order to diversify overall investments position, regardless of current market prices this will continue, soon the rich Indians (from India) will be coming. 3) ALR, US Border, Mountains all limit the supply of land in the lower mainland, combine this with my buy RE with a land component close to the CBD and you have a winning formula, providing of course you can afford it.
I have a lot of sympathy for working Vancouverites looking to get into the market, people who grew up in Vancouver and want to stay and raise their families, yet can not afford the market and see their dream of providing for their family like their parents did fade.Hey it’s not fair but it does not change the situation. If you are one of these angry people who desperately want the market to crash or use screwed logic to justify renting and your pessimism, I suggest you consider moving. If I was young and unable to get into the Vancouver RE market, I would move to a place like Saskatchewan where real estate is cheap, the economy is strong and prospects are good, sure the winters crap but it doesn’t rain. Having left BC 20 years ago, I would never be in the situation I am now, able to come back and buy quality real estate, looking through global glasses and liking what I see.
Please go ahead and buy a house now. Don’t forget to let us know in a couple of years how it works out for you…
Then buy…take a chance.
Unless you are a realtor and are being disingenuous about your motives
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