etalian posted:

Isn't Montreal also somewhat lower cost of the living compared to the other major cities?

Lexicon posted:

Very much so. Higher taxes though, and an economy that's not exactly world-beating.

etalian posted:

I've heard it also has a pretty good late night entertainment economy similar to Portland.

Cultural Imperial posted:

TIME FOR SOME INTROSPECTION.

Yes, hmm, this can only end in a soft landing.

David Lereah is great btw, check out some of the things he's said in the past.



lmao

Lexicon posted:

Ha. Like Portland, it is a great city to visit or live short term (while attending McGill for example). Not so great if you're hoping for a robust job market, etc - and then of course Quebec comes with its own set of annoyances that tend to compound with time.

etalian posted:

a pussy corps doesn't make up for a bad job market or the whole loony separatist mindset.

Cultural Imperial posted:

I was in Montreal for the '95 referendum. The difference in atmosphere and disposition of Quebecois society between now and then is like night and day. Given the choice, I'd take Montreal over Vancouver in a heartbeat. If you think any Quebecois gives a poo poo about separatist politics and hatred of anglophones, you're goddamn crazy or a dumb poo poo Vancouverite.

Cultural Imperial posted:

David Lereah is great btw, check out some of the things he's said in the past.

Most helpful positive review posted:

An extraordinary, and extraordinarily important, book Feb. 25 2009
By M M - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback
I agree with other reviewers who have pointed out that this is, in fact, an extraordinarily important book. In particular, it provides a classic example of the mentality that underlies every asset bubble. The author pulls out every trick in the book - demographic trends, financial innovation, macro trends, etc. - to argue that "this time is different." Alas, as we all have found out, this time was not different. What goes up for no discernible reason, must come down. If something seems to good to be true, it probably is. You can try to argue that the "fundamentals have changed", but they rarely do. And when things correct, it can be bloody. (Alas, the difference here was that the hucksters were also able to take the down the financial system, but that's another matter.)

But why this book is important, and why I'd suggest that every investor read it, is because it illustrates exactly the sentiments that lead to absurd behavior in asset markets. Silly assumptions. The belief that the price of some asset will continue to rise. Desperate rationalizations for those price increases. The resulting behavior is not necessarily illegal or unethical (as some other reviewers have suggested), rather it provides a classic case of the mentality that leads to excesses in asset markets. Read this book and learn from it. Because you don't want to get caught up in this kind of garbage.

BTW, I pity the author. Not simply because so many people attack him as an idiot or a shill for the realtors, but because his timing was so appalling. Shiller, who became famous for calling the peak of the dotcom bubble, often thanks his publisher for getting his book out at the right time. This guy's publisher was way way off. (Of course, it also helps if you're not, in fact, an idiot. Sorry David.)

Most helpful negative review posted:

For me, this was more comic relief than any scholarly analysis.

etalian posted:

lol

etalian posted:

Vancouver is basically bay area absurdity in cost of living without things to make up for like lots of high paying jobs and education opportunities.

etalian posted:

lol

Guest2553 posted:

What calculator is that from? I move a lot for work and it would be super useful to have a ballpark estimate of what different areas are like.

quote:

Young buck aims for 10 properties by 30


Mitchell Shand is 22 and has just bought his second investment property. His goal: to own 10 properties by the time he turns 30. “I’m young so I’ve got a long-term plan. It’s all about wealth creation.”

The Sydney mortgage broker bought his first investment property – a $650,000 townhouse in Riverwood – with his sister in May last year and hasn’t looked back

“I work in the mortgage industry, so property is pretty hard to ignore. It’s something tangible. It won’t burst and it won’t lose its value overnight. Shares tend to go up and down,” he tells AFR Weekend.

He believes the Reserve Bank’s fears about property investors overheating the market are largely unfounded because the right lending measures are already in place.

“The RBA is being a bit too cautious. Investing is only a problem if you do it the wrong way; if you’re geared up to the hilt, don’t know the value of your property and prices fall. Then you could end up owing 100 per cent or more of the value of your investment”

His advice: be conservative, think outside the box and buy at the cheaper end of the market. “You need to look at what you can afford, not how much the bank says you can borrow. Don’t overextend yourself.”

TOWNSVILLE TARGETED
With Sydney property prices rising about 16 per cent over the past year, Shand did better than expected out of his Riverwood townhouse and was able to use the equity accrued to buy a $250,000 property in Townsville in June. He plans to buy again next year and is looking at Brisbane.

He picked Townsville because of its good capital growth potential. “It has a university, army base, good schools and plenty of infrastructure development.

“I’ve done well out of my Sydney property, but I think the market has peaked. When it eventually flattens out, I’ll look at it again.”

Both his properties are negatively geared.

He earns about $300 a week in rent from the Riverwood property and $295 a week from his Townsville tenants. This gives him gross yields of 4.8 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively: “I get a lot back in tax, so in a way it’s forced savings. The rent I receive goes into a separate lender account so I don’t miss any interest payments.”

Before joining Neutral Bay mortgage brokers Smartmove, Shand worked at the Commonwealth Bank, where he has both his loans. His first loan was a split fixed-variable mortgage. The fixed portion acts as a hedge against future rate rises, while the variable component allows for extra repayments.

“If I get paid a bonus, I can put that into my home loan. I also have an offset account, which reduces my home loan balance and my monthly interest payments,” he says.

90PC BORROWED
He bought his second property with a variable investment loan. In both cases he borrowed 90 per cent of the value, but only had to pay lenders’ mortgage insurance (LMI) on the second investment property.

“When I bought my first investment property, the bank offered a staff deal, which waived LMI,” he says.

Shand continues to rent, flat-sharing with a mate in Cammeray. He budgets carefully each month to meet his commitments with something left over to eat out with his friends. But these are small sacrifices and Shand appears well on his way to becoming a property mogul.

“My friends are all very surprised I am able to do this at my age. The hardest thing was to accumulate my first deposit – my father helped me out – but it just rolled on from there,” he says.

Paul Davis posted:

I think housing affordability is an issue in this province. And that’s why I’ve talked about [programs like] the down payment assistance program. I do think it’s an issue for the province, and quite often that barrier is in people getting their first home. The housing market has softened in recent months, there are houses that are not selling now, we see prices have dropped in areas, and the brisk sales that we saw for a period of time are not that way anymore. But we also have the big demand for rental opportunities. Rental vacancies are still at an all-time low. So, one of the benefits of giving people an opportunity, who can afford a mortgage but just don’t have that down payment, is if we can help some of them move to purchasing their own home, that also frees up rental opportunities, which are in huge demand today. There are housing challenges that come with economic growth. Having a good economy doesn’t cure all our problems, it creates new challenges as well, and housing is one of those.

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Dr. Stab posted:

It's a very Canadian way of thinking. People are renting so much because owning is too expensive, and the solution to this is to let them take on more debt.

sitchensis posted:

I was wondering where I'd seen this cover before. Thanks.

quote:

Sofia is a teaching assistant at a Toronto university who earns $66,000 a year and wants to buy her first home.

quote:

Sofia thinks its time to get into the housing market, but she’s holding back out of concern about job security. She’s on contract, which comes up for renewal in 2015. If she does dive into the market, she wonders how much of a down payment to make. A larger down payment reduces her mortgage but leaves less to put into retirement savings. A third concern is an investment strategy and how best to make her savings grow.

“I’m concerned that if I wait too long to get a mortgage, the rates will increase and I will have less time to repay the mortgage comfortably and [delay my retirement],” Sofia says.

quote:

Assuming a 25-year amortization and interest rates at 5 per cent , Sofia can easily handle a mortgage payment of $1,300 a month and still be able to pay off the mortgage by age 65. And the amount Sofia currently spends on rent “will easily cover taxes, utilities, repairs and even the extra travel costs she will incur when she moves further from her current place of employment.”

Page sees disability as Sofia’s biggest risk. As a single woman, what happens if she is not able to earn enough due to disability? While she has disability coverage through her employer, it’s enough to give her only 60 per cent of her income. That amount would cover the basics but little else. Page recommends she add a $150,000 critical illness insurance policy to mitigate this risk. She could fund it by dropping her small life insurance policy. Life insurance is not as critical for someone without a spouse or dependents.

quote:

Another risk Sofia faces is a drop in income after buying her home. Her job contract may not be renewed and it could take her some time to land the next position. A good backup plan is for Sofia to rent out a room at her home to help carry her costs. “In fact, renting a room could be done at onset to help her save more money,” Page says.

HookShot posted:

The thing about these kids buying up tons of property is that in Australia (I don't know if it works the same way in Canada) you basically just use one property's lien as the security for your next property, and so on, and so forth.

Which means your average idiot investor can own a lot more houses than he would otherwise be able to afford.

However, it also means that if he loses literally one house because he can't make the payments anymore, the bank takes ALL THE REST OF THEM because they're all being used as security against one another.

quote:

I work in the dtes. There's no way I'm giving anyone mouth to mouth.

Cultural Imperial posted:

I'm doing a CPR class this weekend. Direct quote from one of the attendees.


File under reasons to exterminate all vamcouverites.

Cultural Imperial posted:

I'm doing a CPR class this weekend. Direct quote from one of the attendees.


File under reasons to exterminate all vamcouverites.

Dr. Witherbone posted:

Vancouver is a friendly city and I enjoy living in it

Dr. Witherbone posted:

Vancouver is a friendly city and I enjoy living in it

sauer kraut posted:

The guy is actually right, why are they still teaching CPR to the general public?

Call an ambulances with your cellphone, if you have gloves stop the bleeding and make sure the patient doesn't choke on vomit. Maybe whip out the space blanket but you gonna use the wrong side anyway.

Do not go wild cracking ribs, popping lungs or make heart arrhythmia even worse, thanks.

sauer kraut posted:

Do not go wild cracking ribs, popping lungs or make heart arrhythmia even worse, thanks.

quote:

babies aren't like gross dtes people right?

quote:

unless they're babies belonging to gross dtes people

sauer kraut posted:

The guy is actually right, why are they still teaching CPR to the general public?

Call an ambulances with your cellphone, if you have gloves stop the bleeding and make sure the patient doesn't choke on vomit. Maybe whip out the space blanket but you gonna use the wrong side anyway.

Do not go wild cracking ribs, popping lungs or make heart arrhythmia even worse, thanks.

Cultural Imperial posted:

: class laughs:

E: also, you guys are loving idiots. I guess no one should ever learn basic first aid because someone might have ebola