“You and that stupid girl are single, unemployed and miserable because you think so highly of yourselfs, blow what little money you have instead of saving and investing. I am single have a awesome job in health care and OWN a condo in Surrey that is not eating up my paycheques. I have no debt except my mortgage because I thing ahead, don’t you reaserch a career before you enter university? The people in this town never want to look at themselfs first they want to point the finger and blame others for their lifes problems, as a minority born, raised and educated in BC, I am glad I didn’t move downtown and end up like all of you. Yes Surrey sucks but I am making good money and can walk to work in 5 min. form a condo I OWN.”
– ‘vince’, commenting at soloinvancouver 23 Mar 2012 5:31pm
Debt and Compromise.
You can do it!
– vreaa
Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive 
Hope his health caring is better than his grammaring. 😉
I bit my tongue on that one 😀
In this case, the spelling is telling.
Also relates to El Ninja’s comment regarding poor financial literacy.
Limited literacy, of all types.
“Debt and compromise”… as inevitable as “Death and Taxes”?
Not necessarily… Apropos, this weekend’s best RE FunRead…
[UK Indepedent] – The Ideal Home Show reveals we’re a nation obsessed with home improvement: Faced with a flat housing market, property owners are choosing to improve, not move. But do we really need self-cleaning grills and a mop for every occasion?
“Michael Bywater’s top 10 terrible interior trends
Professional catering hob: Eight rings, wok burner, 12,000kw grill. You don’t need it and you’ll burn yourself. A must-have.
Greige: The colour. Farrow & Ball would call it ‘Throat Oyster’. Says: “I don’t really live here, I’m just waiting for the market to liven up”.
Built-in vacuum plugs: Hints pleasingly at some strange sex gimmick.
Mops: You can’t have too many novelty mops. When guests come to call, spill hard-to-shift cack everywhere and watch their faces.
Pampas grass: The must-have from yesteryear. Set it off with Football Mums.
Decking: Plan to treat it regularly but don’t. Let it go slimy, then rot.
Unscented candles: To blazes with Diptyque. Get some tallow, make your own and fill your house with, mmm… mutton aroma.
Fifties wallpaper: The only decade which will never be retro. Trellises, haciendas, and the one with interesting Con’inen’al vegetables.
Conversation piece: Remember them? Stick it on the coffee table and watch everyone try to think of something to say.
Swarovski crystal: Everywhere. Even in the bog. Especially in the bog.”
http://tinyurl.com/ctnsdcl
Its true. Vote with the feet.
Given the strikingly obvious disadvantages to purchasing vs. renting in today’s market, I’ve been wondering how buyers rationalize their decision financially. Then it dawned on me: they don’t. Most people are financially illiterate. Beyond the “affordability” of monthly payments, actual numbers don’t even enter the equation.
Instead, deeper psychological factors are at work. Here’s my attempt at mapping out the buyer’s decision process:
Start with the premise that shelter is a basic need and add the following:
+ Perception that renting is insecure
+ Peer and family pressure
+ Media and culture that glamorize home ownership
+ Low interest rates and countless government subsidies (quick, they may not last!)
+ Delusion that we live in the BPOE and everyone wants to move here
+ Perception that real estate always goes up
= Need to purchase NOW!
+ Renting is “throwing away money” and “paying somebody else’s mortgage”
+ Owning is the responsible, adult, community minded, family-caring thing to do
+ Greed
—
Agree re financial illiteracy.
thumb up to vince and it’s suck to be you, vreaa! If RE and homeownership are your enermy, i feel sorry for your spouse and kids.
Oh Fred, you made it through the blocks and filters, congratulations !
Couldn’t resist leaving Fred’s work up as some kind of self-referencing meta-comment.
There is safety in numbers, if everyone else is doing it, it probably is safe.
“Low interest rates … (quick, they may not last!)”
No need to worry about THAT going away any time soon. Ergo, the bubble. Sub 3% anyone?
I’ve been from the Arctic to South America, Paris, and London, from jungle to mountaintop, but this Surrey condo thing just might be my next life’s passion.
Sittin at the window, watching the rain, the endless streams of traffic and struttin to my job. Day in, day out. Me and my condo. Me and my job. Me and Surrey. Yeah, baby, I own this life.
Could easily be the core of some lyrics for a great song.
Wow, spoken like someone who’s really enjoying sucking on a lemon, this post is as bitter as it is flaunting.
Scrub FastForward… 32 years into that amortization… A ‘HealthCare’ setting… somewhere near the end of the quotidian EXPO Line….
PS – ‘Back In The Day’ – we used to say, “WhiteRock… is never having to say you’re Surrey.”…
I know of 2 RNs who bought in the last 2 years. One a single in her late 30s, already owns her condo bought a SFH in Vancouver East that she now rents out to 2 families. The other one is married to a healthcare manager and they were renting before buying a house in Point Grey.
It’s none of my business really. 😛 They must have worked out Plan B, Plan C, and etc.
“Laugh, and the whole laugh with you;
cry, and you cry alone.”
Mortgage. Then the bank owns the condo, just just hold the liability, but why quibble?
That’s the Corona talking, I swear. (Only one!)
“Surrey may suck, but goddamnit! I own this corner of suck!”
VREAA, that banner looks familiar, you working on your own infographic?
… no, just playing around and ‘quoting’ from the last one.
Hmmm…. tempting.
It’s encouraging to see that even a poorly educated person is able to carve out a little piece of the good life, even if that limited concept of the good life means living in a condo in Surrey. I’m happy for you, not many people can find Nirvana so easily.
As an aside, I sincerely hope that your “awesome job in health care” doesn’t involve anything that requires literacy, that would be really scary.
What a condescending attitude demanding that people research careers before going to university/college. A lot can change in 3 to 4 years. I know someone who got into a computer science program during the dotcom bubble and by the time he graduated job prospects were weak.
Anyway, I am glad you have found your Nirvana in a Surrey condo. I wish my sense of achievement was that simple. If most people had that level of content then we would not worry about stress, blood pressure, depression, ulcers e.t.c. More power to you Mr/Ms Healthcare Professional.
Not sure what all you guys are commenting on about Surrey being a hole.
Has anyone taken a good look at the architecure in Vancouver ? A complete majority of places in the city are as ugly as sin. Enjoy your downtown 600 squart foot hole, a Vancouver special, ug, stucco anyone. We all have a liittle bit of hell because Im pretty sure nobody here has a waterfront place with any decent design.
Fuzzy logic/Straw-man alert:
Yes, architecture in Vancouver is sorely lacking.
I don’t see anybody here defending Vancouver architecture at the same time as pointing out the modest nature of this individual’s ambitions.
And Vince says he’s single? Can’t imagine why. He sounds delightfully humble.
Hey vreaa, the people on this thread were making fun of Surrey. Im saying look at the crap you deal with in your own neighbourhood. It usually aint so pretty.
As for fuzzy logic, isnt naming your website “Anecdote Archive” just a receptacle for junk.
I am reading here a bunch of pop academics spewing one mantra, that of the man holding the sign “the world is ending”.
It also must be nice to insult the people coming to your site.
Please indicate where you think we’ve insulted anybody; we try not to do that.
“Fuzzy logic – Straw man alert” by you .
What is that , a compliment ?
No, it’s a description.
You do know what a “straw man” argument is, don’t you?