“I buy three, and my husband gonna buy three.” – Yaletown Speculator, 2004

A lady at a pre-sale promotion for the development ‘Yaletown Park’, in 2004, uttered words that are now immortalized as representative of the Vancouver RE bubble: “I buy three, and my husband gonna buy three.”

[Thanks to hatsujoki for extracting the clip from Greenhorn’s full context clip here. And thanks to discussants at vancouvercondo.info for initiating the search for this gem. -vreaa]

“I recently went back to my first home in Mount Pleasant, when I had lived as an immigrant back in 1989. There has been a lot of changes to the neighborhood, and blocks where I don’t recognize where I am”

This response to Froogle Scott Chronicles Part 5 from space889 at vancouvercondo.info 26 Feb 2010 10:52 am –

“I had recently gone back to my first home in Mount Pleasant when I came as an immigrant back in 1989 and lived there for about 10 years. There has been a lot of changes to the neighborhood and blocks where I don’t recognize where I am. There have been large heritage style houses torn down and rebuilt as large townhouse complexes. However to me this is also progress. While people may be nostalgic about those cute character houses built pre-1930, or those cute charming wartime bungalows, the question I have is do they really think it’s a good idea to keep all those houses as they are, never renovate or rebuild them? I think we should preserve some heritage buildings but that doesn’t mean all new developments are bad. Some are, some aren’t. However to to me wishing things don’t change is even worse. Imagine for a minute, if Vancouver had somehow been frozen in time so that no existing house is torn down and no new big box houses were build in their palce since 1970. Every homeowner kept their houses in good condition without major renovations such the house is not recognizable. Do you really think that would make a better Vancouver than it is today? Is it really better to live in a 50 years well build and well maintained small house than to live in a well build new and likely larger building using all the advances we had in the last 50 year?”

“I just sold a condo to a buyer from Asia who’s paying all cash. What does that say about the Vancouver market?”

Foreign buyers with cash do exist. They influence the market directly to a small degree. A more powerful but indirect effect is that local buyers tell themselves that foreign money is contributing to ongoing market strength.

This from ryedawg76 4 Dec 2009 11:00 am at RE Talks –

“I just sold a condo to a buyer from Asia who’s paying all cash. What does that say about the Vancouver market? Interest rates may be influencing the prices to some degree but foreign investors with boatloads of cash and an appetite for real estate are the biggest contributors to the lofty but relatively stable prices we are seeing.”

“We dare not dream to buy a home in Vancouver. We feel shame to be poor and working poor.”

This brief yet poignant personal story about the feeling of being left behind by this RE bubble. From ‘Mom in Vancouver’ at greaterfool.ca on Nov 07, 2009 at 1.48 am –

“We dare not dream to buy a home in Vancouver, actually we can not afford anything with a yard for a kid to play in, in Surrey, or Maple Ridge, although I worked for several years as a full time programmer. We feel shame to be poor and working poor.”

“On Halloween we got less than 25% of the historical number of children at our door Trick or Treating.”

vreaa was not the only one to notice the dearth of trick-or-treaters this year. This from TheOrra at thetyee.ca, commenting on an article on reduced projections regarding the economic benefits of the 2010 Olympic Games, by Andrew MacLeod, 3 Nov 2009 –

“On Halloween we got less than 25% of the historical number of children at our door Trick or Treating. Was it H1N1, the economy, or just a change in attitude towards candy, who knows? But the Olympics (as a symbolic Halloween) are likely to experience the same low numbers for the same reasons: fear of the pandemic, not enough money to pay for the trip, or just a pervasive rancor over the spending on junk, rather than on economic meat and potatoes.”

Bizarre Reason For Becoming A Realtor #47- To Avoid Insulting Your Mother-In-Law

Perhaps this kind of family politics occurs regardless of market conditions. Or perhaps it is indicative of a market in which unusual behaviour of all sorts has become the norm. This dialogue in a series of posts on RE Talks, started by househunting on Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:55 pm –

househunting: “I am house hunting right now and it is not looking good. I am probably going to rent until more listing show up in the spring. Is it worth it to get my license to purchase my my home? What is the process and what is the cost? … I don’t have much faith in realtors, and would rather pay myself the commission.”

Lost Soul: “You do realize that having a Realtor is not a pre-requisite to buying a place, don’t you?”

househunting: “It is in my case. Got a realtor in the family that kinda have to use. Rather get my own license and do it myself.”

islandlandlord: “If he/she can’t do the job then I’d cut him loose and find someone who can. Maybe things are different in your family, but I wouldn’t hesitate to drop him.”

househunting: “I wish it were that easy. When it is your spouses immediate family it’s a little hard. Any info on how long it takes to get a license?”

Multiple Offer: “Since there is a realtor in the family, why not offer to split the commission with him/her and save the trouble?”

househunting: “Thanks for the response. It has nothing to do with the commission. If I could use another realtor I would. I just don’t want to have to deal with my current realtor (MIL [my mother-in-law]) and the only way is to be my own realtor without opening up a can of worms. I have many friends that are realtors that I could use, but that would cause a lot problems.”

“I keep trying to tell my wife that Vancouver is a city living on credit and home equity loans, the music will stop soon. She doesn’t buy it anymore.”

This account of RE related spousal discussion from DaMann at vancouvercondo.info Nov 6th, 2009 at 12:01 pm –

“I really don’t get this silliness. My wife says “I don’t care what anyone says, there is no recession in Vancouver”. All she comments about is the wealthy cars, and stupid prices of RE. I keep trying to tell her that Vancouver is a city living on credit and home equity loans, the music will stop soon. She doesn’t buy it anymore. She IS starting to believe it’s different here. Shit, so am I!!!??!?!? EVERYTHING is defying all logic and reason. Sure, I know people are buying places based on variable rates of 2% but even at that, I still can’t fathom how ( or why) people are buying and getting $700k mortgages on $100k household incomes. Man I can’t wait for rates to go up!”

“Her partner seems to be doing well in therapy/personal growth work, but they sure can’t afford a house!”

So, who is buying? This from Ginger at greaterfool.ca on Nov 5 at 12:07 pm –

“I think the new-agish health industry is big (in Vancouver), my sister used to be a yoga teacher there, but after being away for a few years, was unable to get back into it because of saturation in the market. Her income from waitressing has gone down too. Her partner seems to be doing well in therapy/personal growth work, but they sure can’t afford a house! And these are 2 people with university degrees. I guess the beauty and climate make it worthwhile.”