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

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Canada Housing/Debt: Trust me, I'm a landlord.

MiddleOne: Feb 17, 2011

tsa posted:

It's incredibly cheap to blanket these tiny euro countries with high population densities with infrastructure, the prime difference between the costs in NA vs Europe can be attributed to that over any conspiracies about telecoms. In any major US city speeds are incredibly fast and prices are cheap- it's just that we have this humongous middle of the country where it's a house every mile. It's incredibly expensive to provide services to these areas. The thing is, even in the euro countries with smaller population densities you still can't make direct comparisons because the structure of the populations are still very different. In Europe you tend to have these isolated communities with high densities- much easier to cover than the US and Canada where you have these huge areas without any real major compaction of people.

The overall point is whenever this topic comes up there's lots of people without a clue asking why SK has higher internet speeds than NA. Turns out it's really easy to have fast cheap internet when one loving city has 50% of your countries population.

Look at states in the US and then compare them with European countries with similar population density and wallow in how wrong you were.

# ? Mar 31, 2015 21:10

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 05:56

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Xoidanor posted:

Look at states in the US and then compare them with European countries with similar population density and wallow in how wrong you were.

Yeah basically through the US telecom monopoly and manipulation of the market you are forced to buy lovely service for more money.

lolling at people who try to explain it away as saying well the USA is so huge, so service should be much worse.

# ? Mar 31, 2015 21:13

blah_blah: Apr 15, 2006

Cultural Imperial posted:

You guys are full of poo poo. I live 10 miles from pioneer square and my Comcast loving suuuuucks

# ? Mar 31, 2015 21:57

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

Look at this tech bubel motherfucker

# ? Mar 31, 2015 22:01

blah_blah: Apr 15, 2006

I pay $40/mo for internet and $30/mo for 5GB of LTE data, unlimited text/caller id/voicemail, and some token amount of minutes. God bless america.

# ? Mar 31, 2015 22:03

less than three: Aug 9, 2007; Fallen Rib

tsa posted:

It's incredibly cheap to blanket these tiny euro countries with high population densities with infrastructure, the prime difference between the costs in NA vs Europe can be attributed to that over any conspiracies about telecoms. In any major US city speeds are incredibly fast and prices are cheap- it's just that we have this humongous middle of the country where it's a house every mile. It's incredibly expensive to provide services to these areas. The thing is, even in the euro countries with smaller population densities you still can't make direct comparisons because the structure of the populations are still very different. In Europe you tend to have these isolated communities with high densities- much easier to cover than the US and Canada where you have these huge areas without any real major compaction of people.

The overall point is whenever this topic comes up there's lots of people without a clue asking why SK has higher internet speeds than NA. Turns out it's really easy to have fast cheap internet when one loving city has 50% of your countries population.

Yeah but we don't cover the entire landmass of Canada, only the populated areas and some highways. Trotting out the "But Canada is so much bigger!" just tries to derail the argument.

As for the price gouging, all I have to do is change the province slider from BC to SK and the $94 plan magically becomes $55. I guess electrons are really that much cheaper in Saskatchewan.

# ? Mar 31, 2015 22:34

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

^ re: $94 => $55, It's almost as if competition actually matters!

# ? Mar 31, 2015 22:46

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

Its funny how the least dense parts of Canada have some of the best telecom. You'd think that the GTA would be wonderful but the service is better in some Podunk little prairie town than in the heart of Toronto.

Its as if the quality and pricing of telecom infrastructure in Canada has more to do with how much competition there is and who the incumbent provider is than any stupid notion about it directly relating to population density.

# ? Mar 31, 2015 22:48

less than three: Aug 9, 2007; Fallen Rib

EvilJoven posted:

Its funny how the least dense parts of Canada have some of the best telecom. You'd think that the GTA would be wonderful but the service is better in some Podunk little prairie town than in the heart of Toronto.

Its as if the quality and pricing of telecom infrastructure in Canada has more to do with how much competition there is and who the incumbent provider is than any stupid notion about it directly relating to population density.

Who would have thought a crown corporation tasked with providing infrastructure would give more of a poo poo about providing service to all its citizens at a reasonable rate compared to private industry.

# ? Mar 31, 2015 23:09

Sassafras: Dec 24, 2004; by Athanatos

Sassafras fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Apr 11, 2015

# ? Mar 31, 2015 23:50

Strong Convections: May 8, 2008

Housing investment advice from Australia:
http://news.domain.com.au/domain/real-estate-news/what-is-renting-really-costing-you-20150330-1m8gr1.html

quote:

As you'd know, you'll never own your rental property. However home owners gain an asset that increases in value over time, where a tenant is left with nothing to show for their spent money.
...
Looking back at the $500,000 property I mentioned earlier: After 10 years, it's likely to be worth $1 million. Even if you haven't paid any of your mortgage off and just paid interest only, you are sitting on an asset worth $500,000 of your own clear of the mortgage.

Stagnant wages, highest unemployment in over a decade, the reserve bank warning we're in a property bubble. The only way for property to go is up, up, up, to the moon baby!

quote:

If an average move costs $5000, this adds an additional $50 onto your weekly rental costs.

Maybe I'd spend $5000 moving if I hired a personal valet to move my antique vases in boxes of silk, but where I'm from the renting poors just hire a truck for the day and throw their poo poo into the back of that. It must be like the wages average where there's a whole lot of people at the top dragging that average up

# ? Apr 1, 2015 00:24

ocrumsprug: Sep 23, 2010; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Cultural Imperial posted:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Pete+McMartin+growing+number+housing+squeeze+means+deferring/10933051/story.html

loving baby boomers are deferring their property taxes because they can't loving afford 5 grand

gently caress off and die you loving scum

This didn't get much comment, but apparently this program is optional for anyone over 55 and doesn't require means testing. It also only costs 1% for the privilege of evading your taxes.

You would have to be a fool to pay your property taxes.

gently caress this province, and double gently caress old people and the pandering they get.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 00:51

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

The number of dead zones between toronto and hamilton on the lakeshore west go train line is astounding. I have to sit like an idiot doing nothing while I can't even get an edge signal.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 01:33

sat on my keys!: Oct 2, 2014

cowofwar posted:

The number of dead zones between toronto and hamilton on the lakeshore west go train line is astounding. I have to sit like an idiot doing nothing while I can't even get an edge signal.

Last time I was on the GO they had this placard up about how they just couldn't put WiFi on the trains for ~*~reasons~*~. Is that actually true? Or is it just that no one wants to pay the tax levy?

# ? Apr 1, 2015 01:38

David Corbett: Feb 6, 2008; Courage, my friends; 'tis not too late to build a better world.

Sassafras posted:

I bet putting towers up on flat cheap land instead of mountains and condo towers actually is a lot cheaper. And also that coverage is kinda dodgy in a lot of the solid coverage in the middle of nowhere places but nobody's there to call them on it.

This is absolutely true. Some of the "coverage" areas out in the prairies are more theoretical than practical.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 01:51

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

David Corbett posted:

This is absolutely true. Some of the "coverage" areas out in the prairies are more theoretical than practical.

Actually with agriculture being more dependent on the Internet, being able to get decent cell signal in the middle of a Canola field is way more important.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 02:04

computer parts: Nov 18, 2010; PLEASE CLAP

Baronjutter posted:

So why can't our cities have cheap rates and people living in the country or exurbs for once in their lives pay for the cost of their lifestyle?

You can get 5GB for $30 in any US city.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 02:06

David Corbett: Feb 6, 2008; Courage, my friends; 'tis not too late to build a better world.

EvilJoven posted:

Actually with agriculture being more dependent on the Internet, being able to get decent cell signal in the middle of a Canola field is way more important.

Oh, I wasn't saying that it wasn't important. I just happen to know that a few of the areas that ostensibly have coverage actually have really, really poo poo signal levels that are very iffy for phone calls and utterly useless for data.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 02:22

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

To give some perspective on what the housing collapse might look like.

https://twitter.com/Jaytrayne1/status/578767981619982336

# ? Apr 1, 2015 04:47

Rime: Nov 2, 2011; by Games Forum

1:1 comparisons between China and the USA like that are fairly difficult to take seriously, since it's still a pseudo-command economy and the virtue of being a benevolent dictatorship means they can pivot against economic upheaval far faster than the USA could even a century ago. In addition to the obvious differences in population size, per capita wealth, etc etc etc.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 05:43

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

I think china's collapse is going to be 10x more hilarious than 2008. I posted that tweet because I thought it summed up the us housing collapse concisely.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 05:51

Professor Shark: May 22, 2012

Film-makers in Nova Scotia are getting very upset that their millions of dollars in subsidies are going to dry up, saying that it will almost certainly collapse the film industry in the province because, as one finance guy said, they depend on the subsidies for 2/3's of their labor costs.

According to the government only 50% of those who received the subsidy last year actually filmed in Nova Scotia.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 10:44

JibberJabberwocky: Mar 24, 2012

New Brunswick meanwhile decided to make cuts in the only sensible place: the tuition cap for students going to university who decide to stay in New Brunswick. This was a program some friends were relying on to keep their tuition costs manageable (it capped loans at 26,000 if you completed your degree in the minimum possible time with no failure and planned to stay in New Brunswick and some other conditions).

Some other stuff too - http://globalnews.ca/news/1913393/brian-gallants-liberals-to-deliver-first-n-b-budget-since-taking-office/ - mostly people whining about not wanting any tax raises (they raised taxes slightly on the top 1 percent of NB earners) - but it seems good budgetary decisions are just not going to happen this year. Guy in the article sort of nails it. There is a point of diminishing returns on cuts and most provinces are well past that. Investing in education and infrastructure and safety nets is going to give you a lot more mileage than "keeping taxes low". You should have to look no further than the Albertan death pact to know the road other provinces are on. gently caress, tax me all you want, but don't cut 250 teaching positions, or, as Alberta did, 2000 positions - many of them doctors and nurses - just because it is a cut and cuts are good. Cuts are not good, consolidation, organization, infrastructure, education.

Meanwhile, purely anecdotal reports from the oil patch say people are being laid off en masse at many projects. But my mother who works safety on some new tank construction and pipeline infrastructure is still on the job and apparently will be for a long time. I guess as long as they don't hit the "on" switch, companies intend to just wait for the price to go up.

I am now firmly on the we-should-all-burn-for-our-collective-fiscal-sins train.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 13:09

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-01/reckoning-arrives-for-cash-strapped-oil-firms-amid-bank-squeeze

quote:

Reckoning Arrives for Cash-Strapped Oil Firms Amid Bank Squeeze

Lenders are preparing to cut the credit lines to a group of junk-rated shale oil companies by as much as 30 percent in the coming days, dealing another blow as they struggle with a slump in crude prices, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. became one of the first companies to warn investors that it faces a cash shortage from a reduced credit line, saying Tuesday that it raises �substantial doubt� about the company�s ability to continue as a going concern. About 10 firms are having trouble finding backup financing, said the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the information hasn�t been announced.

April is a crucial month for the industry because it�s when lenders are due to recalculate the value of properties that energy companies staked as loan collateral. With those assets in decline along with oil prices, banks are preparing to cut the amount they�re willing to lend. And that will only squeeze companies� ability to produce more oil.

�If they can�t drill, they can�t make money,� said Kristen Campana, a New York-based partner in Bracewell & Giuliani LLP�s finance and financial restructuring groups. �It�s a downward spiral.�

# ? Apr 1, 2015 14:20

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...rticle23718196/

quote:

World�s auto makers to invest $24-billion � but not in Canada

The world�s auto makers announced investments of $24.1-billion to increase production capacity last year and for the fourth year in the past five, none of the money has been earmarked for Canada.

The value of new-capacity investments announced by auto makers rose 37 per cent last year from 2013 levels, according to an annual study done by Office of Automotive & Vehicle Research at the University of Windsor�s Odette School of Business and the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association of Canada.

Canada has been earmarked for just $180-million of the investments auto makers have announced for new capacity since 2011, says the study, scheduled to be released Wednesday.

�The majority of new-vehicle assembly capacity in North America will be going to the southern U.S. and Mexico and will be added by the Japanese, South Korean and European assemblers,� a news release on the study said.

�Future assembly growth from the Detroit Three will be coming outside of North America.�

Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd., have announced investments in Canada, but those are in existing assembly plants, not in new factories or increased production capacity. Money for new factories is flooding into such growth markets as China and Brazil, as well as Mexico and the United States.

China scooped up $12.7-billion or more than half of the investment auto makers announced last year. Investments in China have topped $48-billion during the past four years.

Investments announced in new U.S. plants totalled $4.2-billion last year. Over a four-year period, the United States trails Mexico, which will be the recipient of $9.3-billion in new spending.

Several new auto plants are under construction in Mexico as Audi AG, BMW AG and Hyundai Motor Co. use that country as a source of supply for both the North and South American markets.

Mexico�s winning streak appears to have been halted at least temporarily this week with the announcement by Volvo Car Group that it will build a U.S. plant to supply North America, spending about $500-million (U.S.).

eat poo poo ontario

# ? Apr 1, 2015 14:24

Risky Bisquick: Jan 18, 2008; PLEASE LET ME WRITE YOUR VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT SO I CAN FURTHER DEMONSTRATE THE CALAMITY THAT IS OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM.; Buglord

Cultural Imperial posted:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...rticle23718196/

eat poo poo ontario

Both the investment news and your opinion are not surprising.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 14:35

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

I can't get enough of this Vancouverite personal finance blogger. He makes 36k a year, and just bought a Tesla Model S

http://www.freedomthirtyfiveblog.com/2015/04/how-to-buy-new-car-tesla-model-s-85.html

# ? Apr 1, 2015 15:05

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

Lexicon posted:

I can't get enough of this Vancouverite personal finance blogger. He makes 36k a year, and just bought a Tesla Model S

http://www.freedomthirtyfiveblog.com/2015/04/how-to-buy-new-car-tesla-model-s-85.html

Good lord. Apparently I'm the model of financial responsibility compared to most. Who would've guessed?

EDIT: If it's not April Fool's, that is. I would also point out that he said "36k after tax," not salary. That's a pretty big difference, but it would still be a retarded idea.

PT6A fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Apr 1, 2015

# ? Apr 1, 2015 15:08

spoof: Jul 8, 2004

Lexicon posted:

I can't get enough of this Vancouverite personal finance blogger. He makes 36k a year, and just bought a Tesla Model S

http://www.freedomthirtyfiveblog.com/2015/04/how-to-buy-new-car-tesla-model-s-85.html

What's today's date again?

# ? Apr 1, 2015 15:09

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

Argh. I'm pre-coffee.

Heading over to the dunce corner.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 15:13

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

quote:

I paid off the remaining balance of $102,500 using a bank draft. Since I didn�t have a lot of cash on hand, I had to sell about $100,000 of my stocks to come up with this liquidity. :? But at least this way I�m buying a car with cash so I�m not going into debt. After all, what kind of responsible finance blogger would I be if I borrowed money to buy a car? Everyone knows if you can�t pay for something with cash then you probably can�t afford it in the first place.

oh my loving god

e:

http://www.freedomthirtyfiveblog.com/2015/03/buy-write-options-trading-tutorials.html

lol

namaste friends fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Apr 1, 2015

# ? Apr 1, 2015 15:16

Kafka Esq.: Jan 1, 2005; "If you ever even think about calling me anything but 'The Crab' I will go so fucking crab on your ass you won't even see what crab'd your crab" -The Crab(TM)

quote:

Since my after tax salary is only about $36,000 a year, buying a $100,000 car might seem just a tad excessive. But my friends on Facebook are congratulating me so it�s totally worth it!

Could have gone either way until this point.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 15:33

Risky Bisquick: Jan 18, 2008; PLEASE LET ME WRITE YOUR VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT SO I CAN FURTHER DEMONSTRATE THE CALAMITY THAT IS OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM.; Buglord

It's clearly an April fools joke, I mean, selling stock to fund a car? You people are gullible if you think otherwise.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 15:34

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Cultural Imperial posted:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-01/reckoning-arrives-for-cash-strapped-oil-firms-amid-bank-squeeze

Yup basically all the micro-cap companies who jumped on the bandwagon over the last few years will go under due things like credit crunch and also a lack of capitalization.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 15:52

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

jm20 posted:

It's clearly an April fools joke, I mean, selling stock to fund a car? You people are gullible if you think otherwise.

Poe's law. One could argue that selling stock to buy a car is not meaningfully more stupid than financing a luxury vehicle they can't really afford at an absurd rate for 90 months, and people do that all the time!

# ? Apr 1, 2015 16:22

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

PT6A posted:

Good lord. Apparently I'm the model of financial responsibility compared to most. Who would've guessed?

If you saved and invested any money for your retirement you pretty much are by default a model of financial responsibility in this country.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 16:28

Risky Bisquick: Jan 18, 2008; PLEASE LET ME WRITE YOUR VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT SO I CAN FURTHER DEMONSTRATE THE CALAMITY THAT IS OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM.; Buglord

PT6A posted:

Poe's law. One could argue that selling stock to buy a car is not meaningfully more stupid than financing a luxury vehicle they can't really afford at an absurd rate for 90 months, and people do that all the time!

Not really. On one side you are willingly throwing away money from an investment vehicle (returns not guaranteed) to buy a rapidly depreciating asset, and on the other you are just agreeing you enjoy a second mortgage payment for the same thing. The former comes from someone who may have some semblance of budgeting skills, whereas for the second that is not even remotely implied.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 16:46

Furnaceface: Oct 21, 2004

Dreylad posted:

If you saved and invested any money for your retirement you pretty much are by default a model of financial responsibility in this country.

My dad came to this realization a few days ago. He actually looked a little depressed when he realized that almost everyone he knew was living day to day and probably cant ever retire, meanwhile he is poised to retire this summer at age 60. Its kind of terrifying that something as simple as saving/investing for the future is something that most people would consider not normal.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 17:46

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

Furnaceface posted:

My dad came to this realization a few days ago. He actually looked a little depressed when he realized that almost everyone he knew was living day to day and probably cant ever retire, meanwhile he is poised to retire this summer at age 60. Its kind of terrifying that something as simple as saving/investing for the future is something that most people would consider not normal.

A lot of people have convinced them selves that housing is the best investment out there, so by constantly maxing out their mortgage and "trading up" their house they are going to reap returns better than any mutual fund. Then again even more people don't even think that far ahead, they just spend 100%+ of their income every year without any though for the future. Live in the moment mannnn.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 18:05

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 05:56

sauer kraut: Oct 2, 2004

Isn't most peoples retirement plan Social Security anyway?
And after that a state-funded nursery home, because if you own a penny by that point they'll liquidate everything to pay for the first couple months.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 19:19

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