Canada Housing/Debt: Trust me, I'm a landlord.

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Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

Guys ALWAYS type "REALTOR�". It must be all in caps and have the registered trade mark symbol, otherwise you are diluting the brand and hurting the image of these elite professionals.

I know some realtors who are actually super fussy about this and I mock it endlessly. I have no respect for your trade-marked job title or your industry.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 18:31

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# ? May 11, 2024 20:48

Franks Happy Place: Mar 15, 2011; It is by weed alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the dank of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by weed alone I set my mind in motion.

Baronjutter posted:

Guys ALWAYS type "REALTOR�". It must be all in caps and have the registered trade mark symbol, otherwise you are diluting the brand and hurting the image of these elite professionals.

I know some realtors who are actually super fussy about this and I mock it endlessly. I have no respect for your trade-marked job title or your industry.

They are ordered by the Boards to do so.

Which is why I refuse to do it whenever I type it out. One last gently caress you to my former employers. :unsmith:

# ? Aug 29, 2013 18:35

Mrs. Wynand: Nov 23, 2002; DLT 4EVA

Cultural Imperial posted:

indeed

https://twitter.com/BenRabidoux/status/372878705648873473/photo/1

Why isn't the 2013 line starting where the 2012 one ended?

# ? Aug 29, 2013 19:56

PT6A: Jan 5, 2006; Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

Mr. Wynand posted:

Why isn't the 2013 line starting where the 2012 one ended?

Presumably because the number of active listings jumped sharply between December 2012 and January 2013, just as it increased significantly between January and February.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 19:58

rhazes: Dec 17, 2006; Reduce the rectal spread!
Use glory holes instead!

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PT6A posted:

Presumably because the number of active listings jumped sharply between December 2012 and January 2013, just as it increased significantly between January and February.

It seems very suspect though, because the rest of the year, the fluctuations are generally seasonal. Yet every year, the big availability hike is between Dec-Jan?

# ? Aug 29, 2013 20:46

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

I don't have time to find the graph for Vancouver, but this is precisely what happened from Dec to Jan 2013 this year. It's quite surprising to me how people perceive the new year with respect to listing their properties.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 20:54

Lumius: Nov 24, 2004; Superior Awesome Sucks

Do building companies wait for the new year sometimes to list their newly finish but unsold units too? maybe for some accounting reason or tax reason.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 21:20

PT6A: Jan 5, 2006; Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

rhazes posted:

It seems very suspect though, because the rest of the year, the fluctuations are generally seasonal. Yet every year, the big availability hike is between Dec-Jan?

If you look at the graph, you'll see that November 2012 is barely lower than January 2013, so apparently that level of fluctuation on a month-to-month basis is quite normal. It just looks jarring because your brain looks at the discontinuity between two consecutive Januaries instead of the difference between December of one year and January of the next.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 21:20

rhazes: Dec 17, 2006; Reduce the rectal spread!
Use glory holes instead!

An official message from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control

PT6A posted:

If you look at the graph, you'll see that November 2012 is barely lower than January 2013, so apparently that level of fluctuation on a month-to-month basis is quite normal. It just looks jarring because your brain looks at the discontinuity between two consecutive Januaries instead of the difference between December of one year and January of the next.

You're absolutely right. I wish there was a graph with it lengthwise: while this one is great to show how a lot of the fluctuation is seasonal, I think the other would be more useful to see the upward trend?

# ? Aug 29, 2013 21:32

EvilJoven: Mar 18, 2005; NOBODY,IN THE HISTORY OF EVER, HAS ASKED OR CARED WHAT CANADA THINKS. YOU ARE NOT A COUNTRY. YOUR MONEY HAS THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND ON IT. IF YOU DIG AROUND IN YOUR BACKYARD, NATIVE SKELETONS WOULD EXPLODE OUT OF YOUR LAWN LIKE THE END OF POLTERGEIST. CANADA IS SO POLITE, EH?; Fun Shoe

I managed to convince my wife that her 'house ownership by next summer or bust' attitude was quite dangerous. Running the numbers on what it'd cost us to pay the house worth / mortgage value at renewal time trap as well as how much interest we're paying on a house put the brakes on a bit. She also did her own research that said indicated that the next 1-2 years are going to be rather unpredictable and it'd be wise to wait until summer of 2015 to buy a house. By that time the local market correction should be pretty much over and house prices will have mostly adjusted to suit.

That being said, we still think that in the end owning a house is the right decision for us. This does mean we get to save up even more for a down payment, enough that our mortgage will never be more than the house is actually worth, even if the value does drop a bit.

Crisis averted, for now.

# ? Aug 31, 2013 14:19

Rime: Nov 2, 2011; by Games Forum

After seeing some of the ducktarded "renovations" done to my new rental by a hippy or something back in the 70's, I'm oddly glad that the barrier to entry is so high now.

Means I can't buy a house, but it means idiots too stupid to breathe can't either? What am I even saying, have we really reached the MAD state in Vancouver? :wtc:

# ? Aug 31, 2013 14:31

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Anyone looking forward to buying a reasonably priced condo in Vancouver in a few years?

# ? Aug 31, 2013 14:57

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

This guy claims re-zoning conflict in a lovely part of Vancouver shares the same underlying problems causing mass civil unrest in Turkey and Brazil.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/08/26/Whose-City-Is-It/

quote:

What do the demonstrations at Gezi Park in Turkey, the mass protests in Natal, Brazil, and the uproar over recent rezoning in Vancouver's Grandview-Woodlands neighbourhood have in common?

Everything.

Throughout the world we are observing what happens when you suppress a debate about who the city is for, and how it should be built.

At Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey, middle-class citizens reacted angrily to a proposal to add a shopping mall to not just one public space in the city, but to many.

Their rage was not provoked by the loss of a few trees, but rather by the loss of the sense that the city had any other function than being a receptacle for capital; beholden to nothing other than the formulas used to calculate financial returns on those investments.

In Natal, Brazil, their rage was not just about the precipitating cause -- a bus fare increase -- but about a concept of the city which justified grandiose billion dollar sports stadiums on economic development grounds while the urban infrastructure they depended on to get to work got nothing. Working families, who could never afford to see events at the new stadium, felt so shamed and insulted by this hubris they nearly brought down a government.

And finally, closer to home and with none of the street demonstrations but with much of the same sense of profound shame, anger, and disappointment -- we have the example of the Grandview-Woodlands area plan.

Glass towers of betrayal

After months of collaborative engagement between stakeholders and planning staff, the city tabled a design centered around a number of tall glass towers; towers much higher than any building nearby and much higher than anything previously discussed.

Area stakeholders who had participated in good faith, who were assured again and again that in Vancouver planning was collaborative and democratic; were surprised, then ashamed of their gullibility, then outraged at the betrayal.

One expects this turn of events to have long lasting significance, and the signs are not good.

Already voices are raised, including the mayor's, equating resistance to the plan with resistance to affordable housing and sustainable transport. Opponents are thus tarred with the NIMBY brush, even though these same citizens had previously agreed to substantial increases in the population of their neighbourhood.

Their only condition? That the grain of that change has something to do with the qualities of the community that mean so much to them. A human scale, a habitable street, neighbourhood shops, community jobs close to homes, housing that they could imagine their kids living in.

But City Hall had a different idea. I understand that a plan keeping more with the physical context, scale and prevailing urban pattern of the Grandview-Woodlands area had been prepared for public review -- a plan that while at least doubling area density, attempted to respond to ideas and concerns raised over many months by community stakeholders.

But this plan was never tabled. Instead, a plan revolving around towers was the one we all saw. It's speculation on my part, but word on the street is that there may have been a feeling in City Hall that the more modest plan without towers did not demonstrate the city's commitment to density around proposed Skytrain station areas, density necessary to gain Victoria's support for the three billion dollar Broadway subway plan.

If this is true it begs the question: If the city seems willing to deform any local process to support the ambition of the subway, why is that subway so important?

My conversations with many supporters of the subway become most coherent when importance is placed against the background of what a city needs to do in order to stay in the top tier of cities globally.

Those who are most enthusiastic will explain that the City of Vancouver has blocked assets -- for example, capacities and infrastructure that could catalyze substantial high grade growth (in globally significant high growth areas, such as bio-medical industry).

Proponents are able to argue this case with some urgency, arguing as I and others have in the past that Vancouver is in danger of losing its primacy in the region to more dynamic cities to the east, in time being resigned to a role of retirement community and tourist destination. A pretty place with no real industry -- a sort of Canadian version of Venice.

Viewed from this perspective, their urgency, their obvious love for the city and the strength of their commitment to it is more than understandable -- it's laudable.

Rage is real

But this brings us back again to the parallels between the Turkish revolt over Gezi Park and the Brazilian "Bus Revolt" actions.

While the case is very strong for increasing Vancouver's economic magnetism -- for Vancouver to be one of the world's "winners" over the course of the next few decades -- the weakness of this vision is the view of what makes cities thrive. It assumes that the fickle goddess of global investment must be persuaded to direct her gaze our way for us to flourish.

But not everyone agrees. The protests in Brazil and Turkey are all in opposition to this view. The critique is that when decision makers focus exclusively (and in most cases undemocratically) on attracting global investment to achieve economic development ends, it undermines the natural rights of citizens.

The rage generated by this feeling of impotence can sometimes seem incoherent, leaderless, unfocused -- but the rage is real and it's powerful enough to threaten established governments.

This rage seems particularly acute when democratic practices have been subverted -- when leaders present a face of community connection and a commitment to consultation on the one hand, but are driven by external motivations which have only a limited connection to immediate local needs and current democratic processes.

In the case of Vancouver, it feels particularly heartbreaking to many.

Political leadership in Vancouver has been united for decades across three different leading parties and their commitment to sustainability. Beginning with NPA-led efforts in Yaletown, continuing with COPE's commitment to sustainability demonstrated notably by efforts at southeast False Creek, followed by Sam Sullivan's courage in tying density to sustainability in his EcoDensity plan, and finally now with Vision's Greenest City initiative.

The despondency, present in many conversations heard across the city, is consequent to a feeling of having lost our way. There is a feeling that the green progressive agenda has been co-opted by the same forces many thought it opposed.

Certainly it can be and has been argued that there is more than one way to measure and arrive at a sustainable city, and to ignore global realities is unwise. But absent of a legitimately democratic conversation about what kind of city best accommodates our lives and the lives of our kids, the frustrations among the electorate will likely remain palpable, and our progress towards our common goal will be halting at best.

How has Vancouver been an economic 'winner' in the past couple decades? This loving city. Only in Vancouver can a loving tech startup that pays its programmers 40k/year be considered the crown jewel of a 'thriving tech startup' 'scene'.

edit: I'm talking about loving hootsuite

namaste friends fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Aug 31, 2013

# ? Aug 31, 2013 17:08

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Vancouver as economic winner.

# ? Aug 31, 2013 17:12

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Lexicon posted:

Vancouver as economic winner.

Canadian Housing Bubble Thread:Glass towers of betrayal

# ? Aug 31, 2013 21:01

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

etalian posted:

Canadian Housing Bubble Thread:Glass towers of betrayal

can a mod please change the topic to that?

# ? Aug 31, 2013 21:09

Spuckuk: Aug 11, 2009; Being a bastard works

Starsfan posted:

well up here in Fort McMurray I pay $1,800 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment in a building constructed in 1972. It is in a nice neighbourhood though (or at least as nice as neighbourhoods get in Fort McMurray).

I was actually considering sinking $450,000 into a 2 bedroom condo unit but the advice I've received in this thread has me thinking again. It's going to suck though if there's another massive growth spurt and housing costs jump 35% in a couple of years

So yeah, I can't imagine New York or London are all that more expensive than Fort Mac. And if they are you have to consider what you receive for paying that much. Atleast there's solid reasons to want to live in those places beyond there not being any jobs available in your province of orgin.

I live in London, UK.

Your rent is similar to ours, although a 2 bedroom apartment here would cost closer to 550,000 - 600,000 CD$

And why yes, I am trying to move out of here.

# ? Sep 2, 2013 16:07

SpannerX: Apr 26, 2010; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.; Fun Shoe

Spuckuk posted:

I live in London, UK.

Your rent is similar to ours, although a 2 bedroom apartment here would cost closer to 550,000 - 600,000 CD$

And why yes, I am trying to move out of here.

I'm starting to like my $210k 3 bedroom home in HRM then. Too bad there are other houses in my area that are way overpriced.

# ? Sep 2, 2013 16:16

Spuckuk: Aug 11, 2009; Being a bastard works

SpannerX posted:

I'm starting to like my $210k 3 bedroom home in HRM then. Too bad there are other houses in my area that are way overpriced.

In the process of buying a $150 000 3 bedroom house in Liverpool.

:britain:

# ? Sep 2, 2013 16:26

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

Spuckuk posted:

In the process of buying a $150 000 3 bedroom house in Liverpool.

How is that an improvement? I'd rather move to Winnipeg before I'd move to Liverpool.

# ? Sep 2, 2013 22:41

Mrs. Wynand: Nov 23, 2002; DLT 4EVA

It is the most disgustingly named english-speaking city that I can think of.

# ? Sep 3, 2013 17:49

Lexicon: Jul 29, 2003; I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.