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.

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

I would imagine the people that borrow for their down payment would also be underwritten by CMHC, so the mortgage lender really doesn't care.

# ? May 9, 2015 19:52

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# ? May 22, 2024 06:36

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

jm20 posted:

I would imagine the people that borrow for their down payment would also be underwritten by CMHC, so the mortgage lender really doesn't care.

Also the glory of the CMHC system is you get less underwriting and better rate if you do a low downpayment CMHC backed loan instead of going for a private bank loan with big downpayment.

Just remember it's because of rich chinese that prices are so high.

# ? May 9, 2015 21:03

ocrumsprug: Sep 23, 2010; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

If they bought two years ago, it may have been before they changed the rules to disallow it. Not that the bank would have cared because CMHC #yolo

VanCity will loan you part of your down payment today.

# ? May 10, 2015 01:29

Femtosecond: Aug 2, 2003

Cultural Imperial posted:

Frances Bula is a loving moron.

???????

# ? May 10, 2015 02:55

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/policy-makers-in-a-bind-over-canadas-two-speed-housing-market/article24359423/

quote:

Policy-makers in a bind over Canada�s two-speed housing market

Canada�s housing market has been a study in contrasts ever since a drop in oil prices and an interest-rate cut cooled home sales in Alberta and Saskatchewan while fuelling double-digit growth in Toronto and Vancouver.

A series of new national home price numbers out this week for April, the height of the spring market, will likely paint an even more dramatic picture of that emerging trend.

�This sort of two-speed, if not multi-speed, market is likely to be the central theme for the year,� said Royal Bank of Canada senior economist Robert Hogue.

Several local real estate boards have already reported their sales numbers for April ahead of the Teranet-National Bank House Price Index due out on Wednesday and Canadian Real Estate Association�s measure of national resale prices set to be released Friday. Nationally, average prices rose 9.4 per cent in March compared to a year earlier, to $439,114. Strip out Toronto and Vancouver, however, and prices rose just 2.4 per cent, the Canadian Real Estate Association said. It�s expected to be more of the same in April, as hot markets in Toronto and Vancouver most likely drove up national home prices once again.

After witnessing a 50-per-cent yearly gain in March, home sales slowed in the Vancouver region resale market last month, but only slightly. Sales rose by 37 per cent compared to a year earlier, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported. Prices soared too, by 8.5 per cent for the year. The benchmark price of a detached home in the Greater Vancouver Area hit a record high of $1,002,200.

It�s much the same picture in Toronto, where sales rose 17 per cent in April, compared to a year earlier, and prices jumped by 8.4 per cent, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported.

On the other extreme, home sales in Alberta and Saskatchewan have plunged this year and economists widely expect prices to follow, dropping by roughly 10 per cent in Alberta by the end of the year. The market for expensive, high-end homes is bearing the brunt of the price drop in Calgary, helping to drive down average prices, said Toronto-Dominion Bank economist Diana Petramala. Prices have also fallen in Regina, while Saskatoon�s housing market has been less affected.

Atlantic Canada is also expected to feel the pinch of the oil-price rout, with layoffs in the oil-sands industry hitting workers who were being flown in from the East Coast, affecting what was already a fairly weak housing market in some parts of the Maritimes, as well as Newfoundland.

Quebec�s housing market seems poised for a modest turnaround this year, after struggling last year. Median resale prices in Montreal rose 5 per cent in April, the local real estate board reported. Housing starts fell sharply across Quebec last month, with condos dropping by 50 per cent across the province�s six largest metropolitan areas. That�s likely to help strengthen Quebec�s housing market this year, given that an oversupply, particularly of condos, had been pushing prices down in recent years.

Can markets in Toronto and Vancouver keep up the frenetic pace of activity for the rest of the year? Not likely, economists say. A 30-basis-point drop in mortgage rates since the start of the year has given those markets a big boost. A drop of that magnitude in mortgage rates usually runs its course within six months, Ms. Petramala said, meaning those markets should settle down by the fall. Government bond yields, which affect mortgage rates, are already trending higher and are likely to keep rising toward the end of the year, even if the Bank of Canada doesn�t raise interest rates, as it�s not expected to do until some time in 2016. With buyers already stretched in Toronto and Vancouver, even small increases in mortgage costs will be deeply felt, Ms. Petramala said.

�Vancouver, because its homes are so expensive, it tends to be very sensitive to interest-rate movements, so we could see some weakness there,� she said. �In Toronto, it�s the same story. Prices have shot up significantly faster than incomes so any small movements in interest rates will have a dampening effect.�

The country�s two-speed housing market leaves policy-makers in a bind. Since the financial crisis, federal regulators have steadily tinkered with rules around mortgage insurance and financial regulations aimed at limiting the government�s exposure to the housing market. Many experts see few available options left to try to let the steam out in just two cities.

Not that Ottawa seems particularly interested in engineering a soft landing by restricting the growth in the housing market, especially in an election year. �The policy-making in Ottawa has been primarily about limiting the exposure of the federal government to the housing market and the mortgage market specifically� Mr. Hogue said. �My read would be that�s still their objective. It�s not about focusing on cooling any markets in Canada.�

well duh why would any politician want to cool the housing market?

# ? May 11, 2015 07:50

Throatwarbler: Nov 17, 2008; by vyelkin

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Disgusting

http://www.watoday.com.au/business/china/chinas-most-wanted-fugitives-in-australia-20150508-ggwgku.html

Is it a regular thing in Australia for people to just outright assault reporters in public? How is that fellow not in jail?

# ? May 11, 2015 07:56

HookShot: Dec 26, 2005

HOW THE gently caress IS THE MARKET IN VANCOUVER STILL GOING UP?????A HDFDSHBDSLDSK

Also the townhouse here I saw the other day 3 bed/2 bath for $469k has already been scooped up.

# ? May 11, 2015 08:03

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

For all you loving idiots in Alberta.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fb79...iteedition=intl

quote:

Since you asked: a shale �fracklog� may muffle the oil price boom
Izabella Kaminska

The next few weeks could be pretty volatile for energy markets, writes Izabella Kaminska

So crude oil is nearly back up to the price at which it was trading on November 27 � the day the Opec oil cartel decided not to cut production but rather to start a price war with the US shale producers. Right?

Yes. This week North Sea Brent, the international oil benchmark, hit a level just shy of the low achieved that day of $71.25 per barrel � though it did close the week at a slightly lower $65.

Ah. So prices have gone right back up. Has Opec had the last laugh after all?

Actually, now could be the moment things become interesting again.

Why do you say that?

The recovery in the price, from a low in January of $45 per barrel, is caused by a combination of predictable factors. First, as any armchair economist would predict, low prices have led to a rise in petrol consumption in the US and China. This in turn has led to a rise in prices at the pump, encouraging refineries all over the US to transform as much crude oil into refined product as possible before summer � which is when US drivers go on vacation and use a lot more petrol.

Isn�t the US supposedly overflowing with crude supplies?

Inventories are more than 121m barrels above their usual level for this time of year. In the past few weeks, however, the rate of increase has slowed, with the first reduction in stocks in 16 weeks being recorded at the start of May.

So does the price rise mean it no longer pays to withhold oil from the market?

In a way, yes � but the economics of doing so are not what they used to be. There is still a �contango� market, meaning the price of oil for delivery in the future is higher than the price for delivery today � suggesting it still makes sense to buy oil today, sell it forward and sit on it until delivery. But once the price of storage and financing are factored in, it is not profitable. BP, for one, has already stated that it plans to offload some of the $1.25bn-worth of oil it had stored in order to take advantage of the new conditions.

Hang on: if oil companies that have previously stored oil then start selling that oil, won�t that knock down the price?

It might indeed. That is why the next few weeks could be pretty volatile for prices. Especially once you account for the fact that global production is still outstripping demand by as much as 2m barrels per day, according to many analysts.

But I thought US shale oil producers had been cutting output to compensate for global oversupply.

Energy majors have indeed slashed investment in future production, and the number of existing oil-drilling rigs has been reduced by more than half � but there is uncertainty about how long these shutdowns will go on.

I have a feeling you�re going to tell me that is something to do with shale gas . . .

Actually, I was going to introduce you to a new jargon word doing the rounds in the oil industry.

What�s that?

Fracklog.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/60c41a9e-cd82-11e4-9144-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk

And what is that?

Fracklog refers to wells that the shale-oil producers have drilled but not yet tapped, preferring to delay output until more favourable price conditions return. But these wells can be made operational very quickly, and with minimal effort, because most of the work has already been done.

How quickly is �quickly�?

Some say as little as a couple of weeks. Which means the fracklog arguably puts shale into direct competition with the oil already in storage on the surface.

Wait � are you saying that, because shale producers can use Mother Earth as a storage facility, that gives them a certain advantage over those storing oil in tanks?

That�s right. And what�s more, given that there may be hundreds of these uncompleted wells standing ready across the US, we should expect a rush of extra supply to hit the market as soon as prices reach what is believed to be the break-even figure for most shale producers of $70 a barrel for another benchmark oil, US West Texas Intermediate. This week EOG, the largest US shale producer, said it might even be profitable for it to resume production at prices as low as $65 a barrel.

Sounds to me like a rush for all the petrodollars the industry can get.

In many ways it is similar to the �every man for himself� mentality that plagued the Pennsylvania oil rush of the 1860s and 1870s, which helped to contribute to the endless spree of booms and busts during the era.
Perhaps, then, we should also expect a John D Rockefeller-type character to emerge as efforts to organise the chaos become more pronounced?
Or beware of the reincarnation of a new monopolistic entity like the old Standard Oil.
izabella.kaminska@ft.com

# ? May 11, 2015 08:16

Seat Safety Switch: May 27, 2008; MY RELIGION IS THE SMALL BLOCK V8 AND COMMANDMENTS ONE THROUGH TEN ARE NEVER LIFT.; Pillbug

Am I the only one who wants to start a vigilante group that hunts down people who create twee portmanteaus and beat them to within an inch of their life?

# ? May 11, 2015 16:16

Antifreeze Head: Jun 6, 2005; It begins; Pillbug

Seat Safety Switch posted:

Am I the only one who wants to start a vigilante group that hunts down people who create twee portmanteaus and beat them to within an inch of their life?

I'd settle for everyone use uses "gate" like a suffix to denote any sort of scandal to just lose their job and be barred from practicing journalism for five years.

There's going to be so many lazy headline writers who won't know what to do if there is ever an actual scandal involving water.

# ? May 11, 2015 16:31

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

quote:

Laurie Campbell: Credit Canada CEO shatters debt myths

Years of counselling people burdened by too much debt have left a mark on Laurie Campbell. The long-time chief executive officer of Credit Canada Debt Solutions has become cautious with her own money, owning just one personal credit card that she pays off monthly, and paying cash for major purchases such as her vehicle.

She realized how affected she was by people’s financial difficulties when her children were small and she insisted on teaching them good financial habits from a very young age – too young an age. Her wake-up call came when her now-teenaged son was just three years old, and she suggested they go outside to play in the falling snow.

“He said, ‘No Mommy, it’s way too expensive out there,’” she recalls with a laugh. “That’s what happens when you’re in my field, because you get paranoid.”

After 25 years at Credit Canada – nine as CEO – Ms. Campbell has seen too many people who have been thrown into crisis because of a lack of financial discipline. Her non-profit agency, a registered charity, provides free financial counselling and education to 14,000 people a year, a number that has grown by 20 per cent over the past five years as Canadians’ debt levels continue to rise.

Ms. Campbell says it is a myth that highly indebted people are poor and uneducated. Many of her firm’s clients are educated and articulate professionals who are simply bad at managing their money. But the clients who stick in her memory are the ones with sad stories about losing their jobs at an older age and not being able to land new ones, or who have suffered personal tragedies like the death of a child that left them shattered and unable to continue working.

It taught her everyone is potentially vulnerable – including herself.

“When I was counselling, I used to go home at night thinking, ‘Oh my god, that man or woman I saw today could easily be me,’” she says. “Because they are everyday people with everyday problems. Many have good educations, but something bad has happened in their life.”

Over a lunch of grilled salmon at a Bâton Rouge steakhouse near her office in suburban North York, Ms. Campbell, 51, outlines her own theory about the state of Canada’s credit crisis. At first glance, she says, it appears illogical that credit card defaults are low and insolvencies are falling while Canadians have record-high levels of debt.

Some argue the dichotomy shows people are managing their debt well and there is no significant problem. But Ms. Campbell disagrees.

She believes the apparent disconnect is due in part to home equity lines of credit, which have become a huge source of new borrowing over the past decade as house prices climb and lenders make credit lines more easily available. With growing credit lines to draw from, many people are cushioned from hitting a final debt wall that leads to insolvency, she says, but it doesn’t mean they are managing their finances well.

She believes that Canadians are far too indebted, and she rejects economists’ arguments that there is no debt problem because debt levels are being outstripped by the value of people’s assets. Ms. Campbell says many people’s asset values are climbing because their house values are growing, but houses are not liquid assets that people can readily use to meet monthly payments.

“People don’t want to just sell their house – I can tell you, our experience at Credit Canada is that they’ll do anything but sell their house, that’s the last thing they ever want to do,” she says. “So I don’t know that it’s realizable assets that are increasing.”

Credit Canada was set up in 1966 as Canada’s first credit counselling organization, formed by a coalition of social service agencies and major lenders. Its mission was to work directly with people to teach basic household finance and budgeting skills, and provide general education programs to the public. Ms. Campbell says the agency’s mandate is still the same – and in more demand than ever – 50 years later.

With 17 locations across Ontario, Credit Canada offers free counselling to individuals with financial problems. If necessary, counsellors will also help clients with a more formal debt-management program, in which the counsellors contact creditors, ask them to halt interest from accruing and create a repayment schedule.

It is one of Canada’s largest not-for-profit credit counselling firms, along with Credit Counselling Society, which has 21 offices in Western Canada and Ontario, and other more localized counselling firms, such as Money Mentors in Alberta.

The agency is funded primarily by lenders, which have agreements in place to pay Credit Canada a proportion of the funds they recoup from clients under debt-management programs. If a major bank, for example, is paid $100 by a customer under a debt-management program organized by Credit Canada, it will donate $22 of it back to the agency and keep the remaining $78.

Not all creditors have such agreements with the agency, including the Canada Revenue Agency, which donates nothing back. Ms. Campbell said her group will work with any clients on any debt problems, whether or not the agency is eligible to recoup anything in return.

She said lenders benefit when clients work out payments and avoid bankruptcy, but they also see credit counselling as a worthy public service.

“They have a social responsibility to help people avoid bankruptcy. … It’s a goodwill gesture, and it makes them look good.”

Ms. Campbell was raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., where her father taught accounting at a local college and her mother worked as a registered nurse. She says both were good with money, although she had no formal knowledge of debt issues when she first arrived at Credit Canada in 1990 as an administrative assistant.

Her university degree in psychology combined with a minor in business turned out to be an ideal background for her new job, where she trained as a counsellor and began working with clients. She loved the job, she says, but it was also stressful, and it was common for people to cry in her office as they revealed their financial problems.

“The first year I counselled, there were many nights I couldn’t sleep. I’d think, ‘I hope I didn’t tell them to do something that was the wrong decision.’”

Although she later moved into management and put her counselling days behind her, Ms. Campbell says she misses the hands-on work, and still reads files out of interest to keep up with client issues.

It’s easy to see how Ms. Campbell would be an effective debt counsellor, combining a down-to-earth pragmatism with a warm communication style. She readily shares stories about her life and her family, and asks me several questions about mine. The same traits appear to extend to her management style, where she values connections with many of her 43 employees who have tended to stay a long time.

“People don’t leave because it’s a good group of people – we’re like a family – and there’s something about the service that makes us feel like we’re really making a difference in people’s lives,” she says.

Ms. Campbell has come to strongly believe the root cause of Canada’s debt problems lies in consumerism – the compulsion that makes people want the latest electronic gadgets, bigger houses and pricier cars.

Her only debt is the mortgage on her house in Toronto’s Scarborough Bluffs neighbourhood, and she says she was content to buy her kids’ clothes at Wal-Mart or Value Village when they were younger. Her indulgences? It’s not an extravagant list – she says she likes travelling, and she happily pays for pedicures.

For many people, however, debt is a habit, and helping people reduce their debt is a process Ms. Campbell likens to dieting, with most people finding it hard to stick at it.

“You’re talking about lifestyle changes,” she says. “You can’t change your money habits for six months, until you get out of debt, and then go back to your old habits. It has to be a lifestyle, over a lifetime.”

Ms. Campbell has lobbied hard for regulatory reforms to help consumers, including changes to rules governing credit card companies and payday lenders. She is currently championing reforms to halt to the practice of increasing already-high interest rates on credit cards to even higher levels after payments reach 90 days of default, saying it just makes it harder for people to manage problem debts.

But she also tells clients they cannot blame their problems on lending policies and overeasy access to credit, saying finger-pointing will do nothing to fix their predicament.

“Clients get offended, and say, ‘Don’t blame me.’ But my feeling is that lenders are not going to change their policies, but you can change your practices,” she says. “People need to take personal responsibility because if you’re waiting for the banks to take responsibility, you’re going to be waiting a long time.”

Oh wow you guys this is so immoral who is she to rich hate and pass misjudgment on others spending habits? She should just mind her own business!!!!!

# ? May 11, 2015 17:22

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)

Cultural Imperial posted:

Oh wow you guys this is so immoral who is she to rich hate and pass misjudgment on others spending habits? She should just mind her own business!!!!!

Looks like rich is back on the menu, boys!!

# ? May 11, 2015 18:17

Baudin: Dec 31, 2009

That post/av combo. Thanks Kafkaesq

# ? May 11, 2015 19:26

sbaldrick: Jul 19, 2006; Driven by Hate

HookShot posted:

In Australia generally the house will have a few open houses before the actual auction, which is generally done in a big hall with like 100 other properties up for auction that weekend. So at least people have the chance to see what the home actually looks like.

Sure, market prices are completely nuts, but do you really want to see John and Jane Smith pay an extra $50,000 because in the heat of the moment another couple wanted to pay more than they did, and so risk their future by going over what they had planned on spending because of the pressure that inherently comes in an auction?

Not to mention Real Estate agents driving the price up with things like fake bidders, etc. Which yes, does happen on a regular basis.

I want this to come here so I can watch it as a crazy reality tv show.

# ? May 11, 2015 20:37

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

So I'm a bit more worried about my grandpa surrounded by crazy neighbours who all want his house. The newest scheme has confused me so I'm hoping someone here might have some insight as to what the gently caress this dude is trying to accomplish.

Another dude, not the squirrel strangler, but another dude who constantly wants to interject him self into my grandpa's life and constantly offer to "help" him (totally not in exchange for his house or being included in his will or anything like that) changed the address on his pension cheques to go to my grandpa. One day he gets the mail, grabs a bunch, sees something is from pension and opens it up and realizes it's not for him. He feels terrible for opening someone else's mail, the postman must have delivered it wrong. Nope, envelope and details inside say his address. He got so mad he taped it all to a rock and threw it over his fence at the guy's door, so he never had a chance to talk to him or find out why the gently caress he did that.

What could this guy's game be? Trying to set up some sort of identity fraud? Just move into my grandpa's house and say "nu-uh, my address is on my pension cheque so it's totally my address!".

# ? May 11, 2015 20:50

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Baronjutter posted:

So I'm a bit more worried about my grandpa surrounded by crazy neighbours who all want his house. The newest scheme has confused me so I'm hoping someone here might have some insight as to what the gently caress this dude is trying to accomplish.

Another dude, not the squirrel strangler, but another dude who constantly wants to interject him self into my grandpa's life and constantly offer to "help" him (totally not in exchange for his house or being included in his will or anything like that) changed the address on his pension cheques to go to my grandpa. One day he gets the mail, grabs a bunch, sees something is from pension and opens it up and realizes it's not for him. He feels terrible for opening someone else's mail, the postman must have delivered it wrong. Nope, envelope and details inside say his address. He got so mad he taped it all to a rock and threw it over his fence at the guy's door, so he never had a chance to talk to him or find out why the gently caress he did that.

What could this guy's game be? Trying to set up some sort of identity fraud? Just move into my grandpa's house and say "nu-uh, my address is on my pension cheque so it's totally my address!".

Your grandpa needs to file a harassment charge or something.

# ? May 11, 2015 21:02

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

cowofwar posted:

Your grandpa needs to file a harassment charge or something.

He's got a friend who's a retired rcmp who took it very seriously and told him to let him know if it happens again. This month's cheque did not come to his address, so it's stopped at least. Also when he came back from the hospital after being away for about a week one of his other crazy neighbours got really mad at him for turning his water off. "I couldn't water your garden!! Someone turned your water off!! I came every day trying to water for you!".

He also has a private lane behind him that constantly floods his property and garage but it's all doctors and lawyers and they refuse to deal with the situation and the city doesn't give a poo poo because it's private and doesn't want to get involved. The latest official word from that group is "Everyone in the neighbourhood hates you and I'm glad we're flooding you out". That particular person hates him because he built a fence a full meter on my grandpa's property and said he had it surveyed. Then he tried to cut down my grandpa's favourite tree even though it was on his side of the fence so the guy said "oh actually the tree is on my property too" so he got a surveyor who of course said the fence was an entire meter on my grandpas property. Ever since that neighbour has been actively vindictive and tells everyone my grandpa is crazy and greedy and "forced him to re-build his fence because it wasn't perfectly surveyed".

The least crazy person in the entire block is a mentally ill Catholic reactionary political activist. The neighbourhood is loving weird. I think two of his original neighbours killed them selves. It's a rich old-money neighbourhood full of old-money crazy.

Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 21:13 on May 11, 2015

# ? May 11, 2015 21:09

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

Your grandpa needs to erect a statue of a giant number 4 made out of cocks on his roof.

# ? May 11, 2015 21:13

Mantle: May 15, 2004

Baronjutter posted:

He also has a private lane behind him that constantly floods his property and garage but it's all doctors and lawyers

Does he live in Uplands? I have a friend that used to live there and he had stories about about his rich doctor and lawyer neighbours being assholes and complaining that my friend was actually talking to the tradespeople he hired and treating them like humans.

Literally complaining that my friend was talking to them at all, rather than pretending they were invisible.

# ? May 11, 2015 21:50

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

Mantle posted:

Does he live in Uplands? I have a friend that used to live there and he had stories about about his rich doctor and lawyer neighbours being assholes and complaining that my friend was actually talking to the tradespeople he hired and treating them like humans.

Literally complaining that my friend was talking to them at all, rather than pretending they were invisible.

Rockland.
Uplands is in Oak Bay and Oak Bay is loving crazy distilled waspy classism. That's where my friend would get notes on her car to stop parking it on the street and switch out her nicer car that was in her garage because it was bringing down the property values to display a 10 year old car in their neighbourhood and what if someone wants to sell their house and people see an old subaru on the street?!

# ? May 11, 2015 22:00

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

Tell your grandpa's neighbours that, the next time anyone tries something shady, you'll simply beat them to death in a back alley and bury them in a shallow grave in the woods. At worst, they report it to the police, and suddenly the bizarre fuckery that they seem to be doing gets taken seriously.

Does your grandpa own the house outright? If so, I would strongly advise registering a small lien on it, with his consent, just to prevent any possible title transfer without him or someone else knowing. If you're honestly concerned about fraud or various other shenanigans, that's a decent line of defence (according to what my REALTOR told me at one point).

EDIT: Also, I'm in the Spanish equivalent of Kelowna (centre of the wine industry, hotter than balls, mostly unknown, etc.) and it's so much better than Kelowna that BC, and possible Canada, should just gently caress off and die of shame.

PT6A fucked around with this message at 22:42 on May 11, 2015

# ? May 11, 2015 22:38

Juul-Whip: Mar 10, 2008

Kelowna is a miserable shithole

# ? May 11, 2015 22:49

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

Saying a place is better than Kelowna is like saying nothing at all.

# ? May 11, 2015 22:52

Rime: Nov 2, 2011; by Games Forum

I should have known things were bad when my ex refused to leave Kelowna and insisted I should move there. :v:

Seriously, gently caress that town, it is trash.

# ? May 11, 2015 23:14

Ccs: Feb 25, 2011

Came across this article today. Are housing prices really the cause of all the problems in the world?!

quote:

Rognlie then deconstructs Piketty's data to examine what's behind the resurgent capital returns that seem to be ushering in a new gilded age. Providing something of an anticlimax to Piketty's epic story, Rognlie finds that this can mostly be explained by increasing house prices. The return to non-housing capital actually ends up looking fairly flat during the period in which Piketty sees the resurgence of gilded age wealth patterns.

Rognlie's findings would suggest very different policy responses than those espoused by Piketty. Rather than pursuing global taxes on wealth, authorities might start more locally by looking at the factors that inflate house prices. For example, regulations on planning and land use � generated and maintained by residents solely out of self interest � that inhibit house building. Or a lack of regional and national transport infrastructure that could ease the pressure on urban house prices by allowing people to live farther outside of major cities while affordably commuting in to work.

Source: https://news.vice.com/article/do-we-need-a-global-tax-on-wealth

# ? May 11, 2015 23:25

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

Rime posted:

I should have known things were bad when my ex refused to leave Kelowna and insisted I should move there.

Seriously, gently caress that town, it is trash.

Baronjutter posted:

Saying a place is better than Kelowna is like saying nothing at all.

THC posted:

Kelowna is a miserable shithole

Yeah, but wine and pleasant climate and all... it should be "not poo poo" by some measure. It has the right ingredients, it's just turned them all into an overcooked dog's breakfast.

# ? May 11, 2015 23:34

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

Ccs posted:

Came across this article today. Are housing prices really the cause of all the problems in the world?!

Source: https://news.vice.com/article/do-we-need-a-global-tax-on-wealth

Yes. Our infrastructure is terrible and it's contributing to high prices in anywhere remotely desirable to live. Right now, I'm thinking Calgary might be the exact antithesis of a decently planned city. You don't realize quite how poo poo it is until you travel for a bit, and then it comes into frighteningly sharp focus.

# ? May 11, 2015 23:39

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

That's the MIT shithead right? Just ignore. He's one of those loving von mises sperglords.

# ? May 11, 2015 23:48

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

PT6A posted:

Yes. Our infrastructure is terrible and it's contributing to high prices in anywhere remotely desirable to live. Right now, I'm thinking Calgary might be the exact antithesis of a decently planned city. You don't realize quite how poo poo it is until you travel for a bit, and then it comes into frighteningly sharp focus.

I totally agree with this. Pretty much all of North America was designed by idiots.

# ? May 12, 2015 00:14

Rime: Nov 2, 2011; by Games Forum

This is a gorgeously planned city, just sayin':

# ? May 12, 2015 00:19

ocrumsprug: Sep 23, 2010; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

THC posted:

Kelowna is a miserable shithole

As a born and raised Kelownaic, this is most correct opinion ever expressed in this thread.

I mean it's still better than Vernon and Penticton, but you could throw a dart at a spinning globe and rest assured that you have found a better place.

# ? May 12, 2015 00:24

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Cultural Imperial posted:

Oh wow you guys this is so immoral who is she to rich hate and pass misjudgment on others spending habits? She should just mind her own business!!!!!

Canadian bubble is not like the US one despite the same home as a piggy bank behavior.

# ? May 12, 2015 00:35

Meat Recital: Mar 26, 2009; by zen death robot

PT6A posted:

Yes. Our infrastructure is terrible and it's contributing to high prices in anywhere remotely desirable to live. Right now, I'm thinking Calgary might be the exact antithesis of a decently planned city. You don't realize quite how poo poo it is until you travel for a bit, and then it comes into frighteningly sharp focus.

North America popped up almost overnight (compared to European cities which have been around thousands of years), with sprawling suburbs for WWII vets are their new families and where cars are the preferred mode of transport. Things are irrevocably hosed.

# ? May 12, 2015 00:51

computer parts: Nov 18, 2010; PLEASE CLAP

Meat Recital posted:

North America popped up almost overnight (compared to European cities which have been around thousands of years), with sprawling suburbs for WWII vets are their new families and where cars are the preferred mode of transport. Things are irrevocably hosed.

No, probably not.

# ? May 12, 2015 01:02

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Rime posted:

This is a gorgeously planned city, just sayin':

Someone took my Sim City designs.

# ? May 12, 2015 01:16

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

Still so curious how their wall to wall building system is going to work. I want to build poo poo like that, not Dubai.

# ? May 12, 2015 01:21

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

Rime posted:

This is a gorgeously planned city, just sayin':

That's some loving autism right there

# ? May 12, 2015 02:09

Femtosecond: Aug 2, 2003

Kelowna is really bad. West Kelowna even worse as it's basically just a road along the lake lined with strip malls and big box stores. I assume these cities don't employ any urban planners and just approve anything because there's simply no thought put into anything.

Meat Recital posted:

North America popped up almost overnight (compared to European cities which have been around thousands of years), with sprawling suburbs for WWII vets are their new families and where cars are the preferred mode of transport. Things are irrevocably hosed.

A counter example is New Zealand, which is a new world country that has somehow managed to build small, walkable, well designed towns whereas most Canadian towns of similar scale are undesigned endless strip malls.

I just got back from Portland Oregon and it is pretty well designed. They've integrated small pockets of commercial throughout residential neighbourhoods instead of forcing all of them along a large arterial, or downtown. Somehow they've managed this without NIMBYs whining about noise from restaurants etc. In Vancouver a combination of anti-commercial bylaws and car oriented design has resulted in a number of "food deserts" where there are huge expanses of residential far from any commercial areas. This is going to be a big problem as boomers stop driving due to age. Portland style commercial pockets would fix this.

Portland has never had as much going on compared to Seattle and SF and so its real estate prices aren't crazy, though my friend there said that stuff sells extremely quickly so demand must be picking up. Industry wise Vancouver seems to have even less going on than Portland, which is home to Nike. If Vancouver wasn't the Canadian Riviera it'd probably be an affordable, underemployed, weird place like Portland too. Too bad.

# ? May 12, 2015 02:19

Furnaceface: Oct 21, 2004

PT6A posted:

Yes. Our infrastructure is terrible and it's contributing to high prices in anywhere remotely desirable to live. Right now, I'm thinking Calgary might be the exact antithesis of a decently planned city. You don't realize quite how poo poo it is until you travel for a bit, and then it comes into frighteningly sharp focus.

There are lots of cities like that in Canada. Barrie was recently used in some big city planners conference as the perfect example of "What Not To Do". Burbs as far as the eye can see, roads not designed for traffic of any kind, and everything is so spread out that you need a car to meet the basic necessities of living. :smith:

Rime posted:

This is a gorgeously planned city, just sayin':

I did this in one of my games of Cities Skylines. It looked pretty but my god the traffic. The traffic.

# ? May 12, 2015 02:19

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# ? May 22, 2024 06:36

ocrumsprug: Sep 23, 2010; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Femtosecond posted:

Kelowna is really bad. West Kelowna even worse as it's basically just a road along the lake lined with strip malls and big box stores. I assume these cities don't employ any urban planners and just approve anything because there's simply no thought put into anything.

West Kelowna is the local native bands fault. Whenever someone tells me about the special spiritual connection to the land natives have, all I can see in my minds eye is the Scottsdale North they built there.

I can confirm that Kelowna has urban planners. Half of what you see in Kelowna is completely deliberate. The other half is what the urban planners told city council should, under no circumstances do.

Imagine the Maritimes as a municipality, and you get Kelowna, with some of the same demographic problems.

# ? May 12, 2015 02:34

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

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