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The house in the associated article about 9 french castles? A friends hippy friends rented that back in the early 80's for $700/month split between them. That's $1900 adjusted for inflation. It's not just the purchase prices that are out of control.
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Jan 7, 2014 00:18
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The east coast is disgustingly overvalued given the state of its economy, possibly even more so than BC in the real areas.
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Jan 10, 2014 21:15
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Wall Street Journal is convinced the Canadian economy is bumfucked: http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/01/14/canadas-skidding/
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Jan 16, 2014 19:56
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The problem isn't just that rents have outpaced inflation, it's that wages have absolutely not kept up. As an anecdotal example, in 1998 my mother rented a 3 bedroom house in the interior for $550 a month, we were on social assistance at the time. Adjusted for inflation, that rent is about $769 today (though it would rent for closer to $1500 due to the bubble). Guess what hasn't adjusted for inflation? Yeah, social assistance payments have actually dropped since 2001. You can apply the same metric to minimum wage, in 1974 the BC minimum wage was $2.50. Adjusted for inflation that's $11.50: BC minimum wage has decreased by $1.25 over the past 40 years.  If rents were pegged to inflation a huge number of people couldn't afford them in BC, when they're outpacing inflation as they currently are is it any wonder homelessness is on the rise? Rime fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Jan 20, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 23:21
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I swear that was either three pages back in this very thread, or the canadian politics megathread.
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Jan 20, 2014 03:42
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This is somewhat of a general economy news piece, but it certainly doesn't bode well: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-22/canada-loses-haven-status-as-dollar-doesn-t-spark-exports.html quote:The dollar plunged to the lowest in more than four years today and returns on Canada’s benchmark stock index were less than half of U.S. equities last year, underscoring an economy beset by the slowest rebound in exports since World War II. Consumers are tapped out with record household debt and governments are more focused on erasing budget deficits than providing stimulus.
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Jan 23, 2014 00:59
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Now you've gone and reminded me that The Dependent is dead. One of the best investigative journalism rags we had going, while it was active. 
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Jan 27, 2014 23:10
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So what's going to happen when the construction industry inevitably implodes during the bubble pop, doubling the unemployment rate overnight? With all the low-end jobs taken by TFW's, and those construction workers leveraged to the teeth with debt, we're in for a rough ride.
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Jan 28, 2014 06:40
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Cultural Imperial posted:lol 'mixer mortgages' I once daydreamed about this idea with roomies, but we dismissed it as far too fanciful and complex for any bank to bother dipping their hands into. Clearly we were wrong. 
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Jan 29, 2014 06:18
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Math You posted:I hope it crashes already so I can tell all my co workers to eat a dick. My aunt and uncle said that verbatim when they bought in a dying mill town up the coast. Now they have a $500k white elephant that they can never sell. But gently caress those thundercunts anyways, they deserve it.
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Jan 29, 2014 22:54
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I'd imagine the crushing economic death spiral which has lead to extremely high unemployment for youth, coupled with the near complete lack of immigration to take up the slack, makes housing a relatively unprofitable venture in Japan.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:56
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Helsing posted:Another big question mark here is just how much exposure the bank's have to a housing bust. One of the big things stopping me from switching my savings out of the TD and into a credit union, such as VanCity, is the horrifying level of exposure they have. VanCity in particular has its name plastered on so many condo developments that I am almost certain it will be entirely bankrupt in the event of a housing collapse.
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Feb 2, 2014 07:22
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Anecdotal example of Lower Mainland homeowner mentality: - Father owns large house free and clear, no debt, is in late 60's. - Son owns two houses (#2 & #3), both mortgaged and rented to cover, lives with Father, is mid-40's. - Son decides to sell fathers house, use it to pay off mortgage on house #3, tear down house #3 (a gorgeous pre-war bungalow with cove ceilings and parquet inlay) and then take out NEW mortgage at higher rates in order to finance a McMansion which he and Father will move into. - Son evicts tenants at houses 2 & 3 so that Father & Son can live in house #2 while house #3 is being destroyed. The market cannot collapse and wipe out stupid fucks like this fast enough.
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Feb 3, 2014 03:32
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Someone who sold their house in 2008 for a cool million after fees, and dumped the lump of it into the DOW when it was at the lowest, would have tripled their investment over the past five years. 
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Feb 3, 2014 20:57
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Antifreeze Head posted:But I am kicking myself for not having a look at a house that was 30 minutes out of town on just shy of eight acres of land for $117,600. Bit of a fixer-upper but for 2100 square feet but considering that I like tools and driving, I'm having a bit of not-buyers remorse. This is why I'll probably retire to the prairies rather than BC. Outside of the sub-arctic, or towns of less than 1000, hours from civilization, that doesn't exist here anywhere. Hell, chucklefucks want $500,000 for their air-access-only collapsing log cabin in bumblefuck nowhere in this circus of a province.
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Feb 7, 2014 07:17
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Lexicon posted:This is probably a horribly ignorant thing to say, but it's always struck me that Canada really doesn't really have that many places worth living (said from the perspective of someone who really likes urban amenities not to mention employment). I mean, lots of choices if you like camping and 'small town charm', but that really doesn't do it for me. When you consider that speaking in terms of geography, climate and economic distribution we're essentially Russia, it's not entirely surprising.
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Feb 7, 2014 20:20
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The social circles are what do it for most people. I mean, if you're living in Clearwater and nobody there likes rock climbing, you're poo poo out of luck and will have to travel to get any climbing in. Kelowna or Vancouver? Hop on Meetup.com and find the local climbing group. Goes for basically any hobby/interest you can dream up.
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Feb 7, 2014 23:34
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I suppose that since Toronto is building more towers than anywhere on the planet right now, the bulk of those units just aren't available on the market yet?
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Feb 10, 2014 21:39
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There's nearly 200 towers currently under construction in Toronto.
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Feb 10, 2014 22:28
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So apparently the investor visa being scrapped included the tossing of 59,000 applications which were already in the queue: http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1426368/canada-scraps-millionaire-visa-scheme-dumps-46000-chinese-applications and http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canada-scraps-millionaire-visa-sends-b-c-property-market-reeling-1.2533006 Rime fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Feb 12, 2014 |
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Feb 12, 2014 05:12
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If half the population of the country are now chinese millionaires, we have bigger problems.
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Feb 12, 2014 16:42
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Zerohedge claims the economy is crashing if a rooster failed to crow in the Sudan. I am unsurprised they would try and muscle in on the growing fear up here.
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Feb 14, 2014 05:11
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I found this article to be a particularly interesting example of why Germany remains the strongest economy on the planet, among other things. We could take a page out of their book. In World's Best-Run Economy, House Prices Keep Falling -- Because That's What House Prices Are Supposed To Do. VVV: As does not permitting their manufacturing & resource sectors to offshore to China, maintaining their status as an industrial superpower rather than a piss-making GBS threads example of a "Service Economy". Rime fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Feb 14, 2014 |
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Feb 14, 2014 19:39
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RBC was the bank called out last year for bringing in TFW's and having the staff who were fired train the TFW's to do their jobs, so I guess the gross incompetence on display isn't completely shocking, but still. 
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Feb 15, 2014 20:58
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Cultural Imperial posted:http://m.theglobeandmail.com/life/h...?service=mobile I was going to post this yesterday, but after reading it I decided it was so retarded that it wasn't worth wasting a forum post on. Does anyone else subscribe to the Landquest Realty newsletter? I find rural BC properties to be a good barometer overall in the province, and this month saw a massive correction in the market. Top end lost an average of $250k and even low end properties dropped by $10K-ish. One massive development in particular, 350 acres on Bowen Island, had the developer throw in the towel and put it on the market. Originally at $5.9M, dropped to $4.8M now. Seems small, but that's a fuckoff huge drop in price for what's essentially a Vancouver suburb. Rime fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Feb 18, 2014 |
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Feb 18, 2014 18:25
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Other than the part about MEC, which hasn't been true for about five years (MEC is a corporate hell which is ruining the gear market), I agree with PT6A. Culturally, we're seeing a rejection of the "supermarket" or "monopoly brand" shopping experience championed by Boomers due to a realization that it created a climate where quality went out the window and prices through the roof. Tim Hortons Vs. an independent coffee/donut shop for example. I loving love my butcher, amazing meat at prices which shock me every time. :3 Rime fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Feb 18, 2014 |
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Feb 18, 2014 23:01
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Basically they're abusing their co-op status to create a monopoly on the outdoor gear market and drive aggressive expansions. MEC was founded because gear was stupid expensive in Canada, so a bunch of hippies got tired of driving to REI in Seattle and started a co-op to sell gear at wholesale prices and break the market. It was also staffed by super knowledgeable outdoors people who knew the gear, and they also manufactured some really great stuff locally in Vancouver via the purchase of Serratus and a couple other brands. Fast forward to 2014 and the prices are now actually cheaper at places like Valhalla Pure because all the profits are being used to expand into "Lifestyle" gear for yoga moms and city dwellers instead of driving down gear costs with bulk buys. This is also why they are frequently out of stock on the actual outdoor gear and clearancing hundreds of yoga pants. They even rebranded everything last year to appeal harder to this market, further alienating their core members. The bike department opening has caused the independent bike shops to go into hard times, since you can just go to MEC and get someone who barely knows bikes to adjust your chain for $15. All the MEC-branded manufacturing is now done in southeast Asia or Israel with a noticeable decline in quality, and the sales floor is staffed by college students who have never climbed a mountain and make minimum wage, meaning its impossible to get advice on specific gear needs. They couldn't even help someone fit a backpack the last time I was in there. It's the prices which bother me the most, though. MEC is not offering a competitive price to their members, in many cases it's more expensive than the competition (or a border run to REI, a massive irony) and as a result they should have their co-op tax status revoked immediately. They're the Wal Mart of outdoor gear, and the consumer suffers wherever they open up shop. /PhoneFormatting Rime fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Feb 18, 2014 |
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Feb 18, 2014 23:22
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Baronjutter posted:I did some work for them recently changing their logo and I thought it was dumb but the staff were all "no this is good we want to appeal to normal consumers not just outdoors people!". "Outdoors people" was said with disdain. Ironically the rebranding is probably a boon for the outdoor gear market as a whole in Vancouver, because it drove home what we'd previously been willing to overlook (the creeping increase in prices, inability to order non-stock brands/tems, etc) and many of us have taken our business to the independents like Valhalla Pure.
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Feb 19, 2014 00:04
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Cultural Imperial posted:Mec makes and sells the cheapest 3 layer goretex jacket on the market. It's also an absurdly heavy POS with shoddy construction. Like I said, their monopoly has turned them into the Wal Mart of outdoor gear.
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Feb 19, 2014 00:23
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There's a middle ground with everything, which I think is the point the article missed by a mile. Millennials are, I hope, savvy enough that they won't be buying the overpriced MEC branded crap because it is the convenient solution, nor the $700 Arc'Teryx because bling-bling "it's da best 'cause it's expensive!". Instead, they'll seek out the product that best suits their needs to razor precision without breaking the stringent budgets they're forced to live with. That's why communal living is on the rise and brand loyalty is going the way of the dodo. PT6A posted:Valhalla Pure is pretty cool, too, and I grew up across the lake from Valhalla Provincial Park in BC, so I'd give them my business first. Except they don't have a location in Calgary, so I'm probably not going to bother driving out to Canmore just to shop there. That's reasonable, I'm mostly speaking from the Vancouver perspective where Broadway used to have a ton of gear shops which MEC drove out of business before they ramped up the prices. They're the only store in the city which sells climbing gear now as a result, meaning I either have to suck up their prices or smuggle poo poo across the border from REI. Rime fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Feb 19, 2014 |
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Feb 19, 2014 00:42
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Pixelboy posted:I... think I know this property. I don't actually think it's a development -- in fact, it's not even subdivided into subdivision sized lots (yet). He may have been sitting on it hoping to one day, but there's no development on the land, and there are no permits. It's pretty pristine... http://www.landquest.com/detailmain.aspx?propid=13269
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Feb 19, 2014 04:21
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tagesschau posted:Three posts later... I can just imagine the shitstorm coming from 10 Million units hitting the market over the next 15 years. A lot of people are going to discover their parents were utterly retarded and are now completely impoverished, leaving the children with no inheritance and holding the bag for keeping their parents from living on the street. 
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Feb 19, 2014 19:18
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JawKnee posted:A very real worry for a lot of people, but apparently not for you? I was lucky enough to be born into poverty, so my only concern is that the housing market collapses soon enough that rent prices return to sanity. My mother doesn't even have a credit card. 
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Feb 20, 2014 18:16
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I once thought that the North Coast of BC would offer the same kind of security, but with an impending bitumen pipeline and the fact that they're already cutting ferry service, I am no longer thinking that is so wise.
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Feb 25, 2014 05:39
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Saltin posted:Fuel/Tinned Beans/Ammo. In the future apocalypse, gold is worthless. Not that I am the type to purchase gold, (I just thought the NC would be an interesting place sheltered from an economic bust), but I've never understood that logic. Gold has remained illogically valuable through the death of every civilization ever. Surely thinking that we would be any less magpie-esque in the future is just a sort of exceptionalism fantasy.
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Feb 25, 2014 18:05
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Consumer debt went up 7% in 2013, with Vancouver the highest in the nation.
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Feb 26, 2014 21:43
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Clipperton posted:Call me stupid, but how do they measure debt in these cases? Like, if I put $1000 worth of stuff on my credit card but I have $2000 in a bank account, does that still count as $1000 of 'consumer debt' for the purposes of that article? Yes, because you're hold $1000 worth of debt regardless of your net worth? I mean, the average they use is $41,000 in Vancouver, it's unlikely that many people have $50,000 in savings on top of that debt (and if they do they need to go take some basic math classes ).
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Feb 26, 2014 21:58
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The structure sitting there is irrelevant, unless it's full of asbestos which would increase the costs of demolition. 100% of the real estate in Vancouver is being sold for the bare land value. Not that this reduces how insanely overvalued these 1/8th acre lots are, mind you.
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Feb 27, 2014 00:25
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Cultural Imperial posted:http://www.bnn.ca/News/2014/02/27/Mortgage-insurer-CMHC-primes-market-for-announcement.aspx I found this part interesting: quote:CMHC earned almost $1.28 billion in the first nine months of 2013. So, a mere 1200 homeowners defaulting on their mortgates would wipe out the CMHC profits for all of 2013. It really wouldn't take much to drive it into insolvency in the event of a US-style decline would it? 
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Feb 27, 2014 21:19
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 08:31 |
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^ What Brannock said. $1 Million * 1200 Mortgages = $1.2 Billion. Of course, in the event of US style bubble pop we're looking at far far more than 1200 defaults. I wasn't aware simple multiplication was "funky math".  FrozenVent posted:Them's some big mortgages there. Rime fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Feb 27, 2014 |
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Feb 27, 2014 22:50
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