“He [a local realtor] says the market is good and he is busy. That’s not what I’m hearing from my realtor friends up at Macdonald realty. In fact when I was in the office last week, I overheard the conversation of a realtor saying his friends have bought homes to flip and they are all stuck with them now. He said the market has fallen so fast, it’s so different from the actual stats. So, by the time you see the HPI move downwards, the market has actual moved much more.” – HAM at RE Talks 28 Nov 2012 10:57pm
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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)
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- 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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The hpi shows 2% decline for Van sfh. But the average is off 14% and median 10%. And now we are seeing some Van west homes sell 15-25% off list and way below assessment.
Why isn’t this on the news?
“Why isn’t this on the news?”
—
Ask The Sun, Province, CTV, Global.
Don’t expect any replies.
Here, we all know the answer (vested interests).
Global does it all day!
Just like CCTV!
Do you remember, loyal cadres, before they were called global, and they weren’t such whores?
Ah, Vancouver of 1985 – come back to us..
“Why isn’t this on the news?”
Uh, pick up a print, as opposed to online, version of any local vancouver newspaper.
If you want a real good visual representation, grab a pair of scissors and cut out all the ads from the real estate industry. How much of the ad revenue in the sun or the globe or the georgia straight is from condo developers and homebuilders?
As we say back in the maritimes, “Ya dances with the one that brought ya.”
Never mind the fact that the only reason that god-awful abortion of an “index” known as the HPI is clearly designed to hide the flatline since 2011 and the 2012 below-assessment prices. Good god in heaven, if prices were rising, they’d be using a straight up arithmetic mean/median price.
News affects people’s psyche. If its not shown or reported, it doesn’t exist. Simple as that. That’s why I come to the blogs for the truth. When the market was going up you couldn’t go a week without some RE story. Now, you never hear anything about RE.
It is on the news. They project a steady market for up to a year, making it a great time and your last opportunity to buy, before +20%/year increases resume indefinitely.
A relative of mine was at University, then left in second year to become a realtor in North Van for about the last two years.
As of September, he’s return to to classes. Before then, for several months, the number of facebook updates about multiple bidding wars, a balanced market, or open houses dwindled to zero.
To keep peace in the family, I specifically haven’t mentioned any of my heretical views on the Canadian housing market or asked why an English degree suddenly looked better than being a realtor in the “Best Place on Earth.”
An English degree – lol
Loyal cadres, encourage your tenants to learn mandarin, so they can understand why you’ll be raising the rents on these crofters.
Every Vancouverite should learn Mandarin anyway, as it will soon be required to work in the coal mines up North.
Even the city of Vancouver knows what’s coming. They are increasing property taxes in anticipation of reduced income …..property taxes based on inflated home values!!!!!!
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vancouver+homeowners+expect+average+cent+property+hike/7624378/story.html
“….increasing property taxes in anticipation of reduced income…”, HOW does this make any sense… for god’s sakes people wake up and do something…what are we….rats rushing over a cliff!!
The natural state of affairs. I quite enjoy reality from time to time.
Trust me, it makes a lot more sense than the alternatives. Read about California Proposition 13, Mello-Roos districts, and all those places in the ‘States where property taxes are legally a fixed percentage of property value (i.e. no mill rate), so when prices slide, they lay off a third of their police and firefighters.
Vancouver’s problem, common to several boom cities in the 905, was to rely on development charges for such a large portion of the budget in the first place. Cyclical revenues for fixed-ish expenses, what could go wrong?
If Vancouver was smart, they would build up a fund from those developer fees then buy land on the cheap to expand roads, etc, instead of keeping property taxes low. Burnaby does this.
How does it help a very expensive city to have low residential taxes? I think it’s just another backwards thing about Vancouver – paradise of speculators.
Vancouver city is too accustom to spending with revenues from developments and property taxes on inflated incomes. I am sure that they can find many ways to reduce spending.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/25/colorado-springs-recession/
Some of the findings have stunned Mr. Fowler: The city offered employees “merit pay,” but employees were automatically given a 5% pay increase every year for five years, no matter their performance; workers’ compensation was 100% of an employee’s salary, even though workers’ compensation is tax-free; employees could bank vacation days and sick pay from one year into the next; 70% of the city’s expenditures went straight to payroll.