Regular reader and commenter Royce McCutcheon has designed and uploaded a template and a series of posters to flickr, designed to educate citizens about the Vancouver RE market. Find the posters HERE. Royce welcomes alternative design and slogan suggestions. [9 Oct 2011]
“Friends Don’t Let Friends Overdose On Mortgage Debt!”
How’s that? -ed.
[This follows on our recent post (7 Oct 2011) debating suggested forms of ‘activism’. We strongly support educating the general public regarding the speculative mania in RE. We do not condone lawlessness in doing so, as that distracts from the conveyance of information.]
Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive 
Great work! I love the “Yoga Pants”. How about one depicting the ubiquitous West Side stucco bungalow with the text “No One Lives Here” in honour of the speculator’s “holding property”?
I’ve got a few in progress. Probably worth a gallery plugin.
Keller Williams Reality is offering a Groupon towards closing costs today. Reeks of desperation.
oops. sorry that was deal find not groupon. even worse.
““Friends Don’t Let Friends Overdose On Mortgage Debt!”
How’s that? -ed.”
Love this.
On another note about Vancouver. I am in Atlanta, Georgia this week on a client site and had lunch with one of the people I am working with this week. As typical you are asked where you live and I said I live in Vancouver, the next question was “Is it really as good as the city rankings claim it to be?”
Well, how do I answer that one in a few a seconds?
http://www.crackshackormansion.com/
It’s fun to watch the facial expressions of Americans playing http://www.crackshackormansion.com
My favorite is the one Is it owning or renting from the bank at twice the price?
Sweet, nice work.
how about ” entitlemment and envy? you are sourer than you think” ?
I thought you thought we were bitter?
hahaha
Bubbles burst, debt remains
As ‘Canuck Down Under’ posted the other day…
“Sell Now Or Be Priced In Forever”
“buy five years ago or be priced out forever”
Ooops, too late
Yeah, that’s why I made this one:
http://tinyurl.com/3fj9nsm
Where else can you live in a 2+ Million home,
repair the basement suite for your tenants
and collect cans for recycling,
all in the same day.
————-
Vancouver: Where being rich means having 2+ Million in debt
Love it.
“I <> debt”
“Rent out the top floor, live in the basement. It’s how we roll.”
“Yeah, I’m special. Vancouver Special.”
“Renting is for losers. I own property.”
“My other home is in the Olympic Village.”
“Salmon stucco, stickframe build, only leaks when it rains….I’ll take it now! now! now!”
“We got it for a steal. Only $1.4 million.”
I *heart* debt.
Why say it once when you can submit it three times….
I *heart* debt. That’s just awesome. Short, sweet, funny, and should resonate with anyone.
Agreed
Awesome ideas. Here is a template that people can use to make their own: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68459632@N07/6232376846/sizes/l/in/photostream/
I’ll try to get to the other suggestions, but am slammed in the near-term. Please feel free to run with these and post here. Tinypic can work okay for hosting if you don’t have a flickr account (or equivalent) to use.
Font was ‘myriad’, if interested.
Here’s one:
Three out of four dentists…
can’t afford this house.
hahahaha
Open wide…
(the wallet, that is)
Canada is one of the most boring countries on earth. Despite the PR for Vancouver and Toronto, these are destinations for Asians who cant get into the USA. However, they have hyped the market to such an extent that they are making paper profits well beyond any other investment profits they could make, their money is protected in a safe economy and it is a manner of buying residency. Canada is going to have a housing bubble burst about the same time it wakes up and realizes that the country no longer belongs to hard working Canadians, but pen pushing Asian speculators.
Pure small-minded envy shines through the comments here. Get two jobs and work 75 hours a week if you want to own a home. If you want to be financially sound, pay your bills first. Stop smoking.
Envy? I suspect trolling but meh – I’ll bite. Just LOVE hearing this line of thinking from boomers who never saw a time like this as they were getting established.
My spouse and I each make pretty great coin, have no debt, buy things like our newish car with cash, and are ably saving for things like our retirement, children’s education, etc. Renting allows this. Owning wouldn’t (at least not any place near work that could comfortably accommodate a growing family). Frankly, with all the other demands on our time, I feel lucky to live in an era where it makes huge financial sense not to shoulder the responsibilities of home ownership. So yeah: nuts to envy. If you view envy as as the primary driver of the frustration you see posted and you see no other problems with the current situation here in Vancouver, I honestly pity you for the shock you are going to experience when the huge financial and social costs attached to this misallocated energy/real estate bubble are realized.
What is the primary driver of the frustration? And why are you frustrated, when you explain all these reasons why you are not frustrated?
…”misallocated” bubble? Where (and for what reason) was it supposed to be placed?
How do you feel about the price of real estate in Manhattan?
You’re right about the responsibilities of home ownership… it’s a lot of work after already putting in the 75 hours (I’m not kidding about that)… and it’s work that doesn’t show up on your paycheque… and then there’s inflation… have you studied economics? … or the economic history of the last 50 years?…
Misallocated energy. Not sure what a misallocated bubble would be. VREAA explains the notion well in multiple places on this site. Very briefly, the $ and effort expended by people trying to get ahead in real estate could have been better spent in other ways.
I never said I wasn’t frustrated. As I implied, I find the misallocation of resources/energy frustrating. I also find the exodus of my fellow young people – my friends and the future of this region – frustrating. I find the prospect of serious financial hurt due to real estate speculation for over-levered families frustrating. I’ve seen firsthand how that last one works. I find the absence of introspection by Canadians – and Vancouverites particularly – frustrating, as real estate speculation falls apart in developed countries around the world and people here in all sincerity suggest it really is different here.
Re: Manhattan, when I look at wages and rents and the amount of correction witnessed there post-2008, I think it’s beginning to add up. I don’t feel that way here. Have YOU actually looked at all these factors for this place versus that one?
Re: 75 hours, been there and done that. For years. Lived apart from my spouse while doing it for part of the time too. Worked till 2am as a matter of routine, etc. I suspect you’re making generational assumptions here. Don’t.
Re: economic history of the last 50 years, I don’t presume to know much about it. I find it funny you’re citing a timeframe that spans nearly a boomer lifetime though, a time with unprecedented post-war growth fueled at least in part by certain demographic factors that look to be much less favorable longterm. Are YOU aware of how different riht now is versus the past 50 years? Are you aware of the debt and demographic headwinds we’re facing?
Hee hee, the price of real estate in Manhattan? New York City (the entire metropolitan area, mind you) earns over twice the GDP per capita and GDP per worker that Vancouver does and produces about 10% of US GDP. Manhattan has co-op buildings with more billionaire residents than all of Vancouver.
Doing a quick google for comparative price/rent ratios, recent numbers would put Manhattan at 25 and Vancouver West at 53, though I’d put big error bars around each.
So Basically, how I feel about Manhattan is that anyone who brings it up to justify Vancouver real estate prices is grasping at straws.
Well, IF and when the bubble bursts, what do you think will happen to rent prices ? Rents are mortgages too you know, you’re just paying someone else’s and not your own. If the market crashes the landlords will raise rents like clockwork to cover the costs, you’re at the mercy of the landlord here…sorry to burst YOUR bubble.