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Precambrian Video Games
Aug 19, 2002



Can you buy up underwater or near-underwater mortgages on prime real estate and foreclose on them, like the opposite of those American foreclosure defense lawyers, or is that entirely the purview of banks here?

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Rutibex
Sep 9, 2001

by Fluffdaddy
I suggest getting into the Meth game. People living in shanty towns after losing their homes love meth.

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe

Rutibex posted:

I suggest getting into the Meth game. People living in shanty towns after losing their homes love meth.

too risky

I want something with a reasonable rate of return that ruins the lives of the formerly profligate.

on the left
Nov 2, 2013
I Am A Gigantic Piece Of Shit

Literally poo from a diseased human butt
You should run get real estate rich quick schemes, obviously. If the market is going up, run $300/person seminars about how to make guaranteed high returns in real estate (translation: teach financially illiterate people about the wonders of high leverage). If the market is going down, run $300/person seminars about buying distressed properties.

To double dip, shop around for some financiers who will pay you to have access to these suckers.

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
I'm a STEM graduate. I don't have any charisma. How the gently caress am I supposed to be successful at giving seminars?

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
http://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1581034/rule-thirds-new-evidence-mainland-chinese-role-vancouvers-housing

quote:

There are at least three ways to respond to the influx of mainland Chinese money to Vancouver’s real estate market, depending on your perspective of the phenomenon.

One position is to oppose it on the grounds that it has helped boost housing unaffordability to unacceptable levels: of the 36,973 rich migrants known to have moved to British Columbia under the now-defunct immigrant investor scheme from 2005 to 2012, 30,013 were Chinese.

Yet, if we accept that Chinese money has helped impoverish that generation of Vancouverites now on the wrong end of the housing equation, who are scrimping in order to participate in a sky-high market, then it must be equally true that those who came before them have been enriched as a result of the same high prices.

It’s the latter proposition which bolsters the case of those who hold the second position, that the influx of Chinese wealth has brought benefits to Vancouver too, helping transform it into a truly international city in the process.

Dan Scarrow, vice-president for corporate strategy at Macdonald Realty, said he saw both sides of the argument. “People are inherently suspicious of any sort of change; by its nature there are going to be pockets of the city that benefit and pockets that probably are hurt by it,” he said. “It’s not a uniformly good phenomenon and it’s not a uniformly bad phenomenon.”

Scarrow, whose firm is opening an office in Shanghai in October to market directly to mainland buyers, was behind a study released last week which concluded that 33.5 per cent of all houses sold by Macdonald Realty in the City of Vancouver last year (178 out of the 531) went to buyers with what he called mainland Chinese names.

What’s more, those homes sold for an average of C$2.07 million (HK$14.7 million), compared to the overall average of C$1.44 million, meaning that likely-Chinese buyers represented 48 per cent of the detached housing market in dollar terms.

The findings add to the body of statistical evidence that foreign money – specifically, Chinese money - has been a driving force in Vancouver’s property market.

Scarrow, who speaks fluent Mandarin and whose mother is Taiwanese, went through every Macdonald sale to determine whether the buyers had mainland-style names, winnowing out likely Hong Kong and Taiwanese buyers, as well as those whose names were suggestive enough of a longer-term connection to Canada.

The process, he admitted, was imperfect, but he was confident about the conclusions. “We’re making a substantial financial investment [in the Shanghai office]. If we are wrong about the data then we are going to lose money over there,” he said.

Among the 178 likely-Chinese buyers, few, Scarrow said, likely made their millions in British Columbia.

“There are very few mainland Chinese who have not come in the past 10 years. They haven’t had the chance yet to make their fortunes here in Canada,” he said.

Yet Scarrow was loath to describe Vancouver’s Chinese buyers as “pure investors”. “Our experience is that most of these buyers are Canadian immigrants or citizens,” Scarrow said. Asked how many of the same 178 buyers he thought had no connection to Vancouver, either as migrants, would-be migrants or dual citizens, Scarrow said “none”.

Scarrow said the perception of mainland Chinese as investors or speculators, rather than simply home buyers, came about because they were “easy scapegoats”.

In any case, Scarrow said he saw an ethical trap in trying to arrest the influx of Chinese money, adding that such efforts were likely to be futile, anyway. “If the demand to come to Vancouver is there, they’ll find a way,” he said.

Which brings us the third possible response to the Chinese impact on Vancouver’s market, which is to reject that it exists or attempt to minimise it; one extension of this is to brand those who hold alternate views as racist.

When the Globe and Mail’s Asia-Pacific correspondent, Iain Marlow, reported Scarrow’s findings last week, he was spuriously criticised on Twitter for writing “racist propaganda”, and for somehow implying “yellow peril” with his tone. Scarrow laughed at the notion his analysis carried a racist agenda (and it seems particularly silly considering his firm is trying to profit from the situation), but acknowledged the sensitivity of the issue, particularly when it came to attempting to halt the flow of Chinese money.

“It’s disingenuous to bury our heads in the sand and say ‘nothing is happening’, because it is happening,” said Scarrow. “But at the same time, I cannot think of a realistic way to stop this [other than] stopping Chinese people from coming here, which in and of itself is the definition of a racist policy.”

lol this fucker was a male secretary for years before becoming a REALTOR

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/vi...Pcmpt%3Aprimary

I knew I made the right decision on skipping queens.

namaste friends fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Aug 27, 2014

Danny LaFever
Dec 29, 2008


Grimey Drawer
A co-worker wants to buy a house with his girlfriend and they found this house that seems really nice until they notice one of the basement walls is slanted.

The owners tried to conceal foundation damaged by putting in some 8x4's and re-drywalling. My co-worker wanted to offer them about 80k less then they were asking to parlay that into foundation repairs and sort of wondered what I thought. I told him I wouldn't buy a sound house at the moment so I really don't think you should buy an obviously flawed one. Then his Realtor of all people told him not to bother and that somebody offered list price for the house... :shrug:

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe

Danny LaFever posted:

A co-worker wants to buy a house with his girlfriend and they found this house that seems really nice until they notice one of the basement walls is slanted.

The owners tried to conceal foundation damaged by putting in some 8x4's and re-drywalling. My co-worker wanted to offer them about 80k less then they were asking to parlay that into foundation repairs and sort of wondered what I thought. I told him I wouldn't buy a sound house at the moment so I really don't think you should buy an obviously flawed one. Then his Realtor of all people told him not to bother and that somebody offered list price for the house... :shrug:

Where is your coworker buying?

Tell him the internet called him a dumb rear end in a top hat.

on the left
Nov 2, 2013
I Am A Gigantic Piece Of Shit

Literally poo from a diseased human butt

Cultural Imperial posted:

I'm a STEM graduate. I don't have any charisma. How the gently caress am I supposed to be successful at giving seminars?

Scrape real estate listings and build a real estate intelligence service that is extremely expensive on a month-to-month basis. Seed the area with flyers and PPC ads. Also, localize the site in Chinese if you can.

Professor Shark
May 22, 2012

Danny LaFever posted:

A co-worker wants to buy a house with his girlfriend and they found this house that seems really nice until they notice one of the basement walls is slanted.

The owners tried to conceal foundation damaged by putting in some 8x4's and re-drywalling. My co-worker wanted to offer them about 80k less then they were asking to parlay that into foundation repairs and sort of wondered what I thought. I told him I wouldn't buy a sound house at the moment so I really don't think you should buy an obviously flawed one. Then his Realtor of all people told him not to bother and that somebody offered list price for the house... :shrug:

Amazing that he very likely found the one problem with that house!

peter banana
Sep 2, 2008

Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.

Danny LaFever posted:

A co-worker wants to buy a house with his girlfriend and they found this house that seems really nice until they notice one of the basement walls is slanted.

The owners tried to conceal foundation damaged by putting in some 8x4's and re-drywalling. My co-worker wanted to offer them about 80k less then they were asking to parlay that into foundation repairs and sort of wondered what I thought. I told him I wouldn't buy a sound house at the moment so I really don't think you should buy an obviously flawed one. Then his Realtor of all people told him not to bother and that somebody offered list price for the house... :shrug:

one of my coworkers is about to buy a condo because he liked the colour of the cabinets :psyduck:

Lexicon
Jul 29, 2003

I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

peter banana posted:

one of my coworkers is about to buy a condo because he liked the colour of the cabinets :psyduck:

We're doomed.

Albino Squirrel
Apr 25, 2003

Miosis more like meiosis
From Edmonton

quote:

EDMONTON - City council approved zoning for twin 38- and 28-storey condo towers in Chinatown Monday just north of Station Lands and the new Royal Alberta Museum.

The Chinese developers hope to start pre-selling condo units here and in Asian markets next year. The $200-million project would rise out of a two-storey commercial podium that would fill the surface parking lot behind the existing Yorkton Pacific Mall on the west side of 97th Street.
After all the issues in Vancouver with absentee foreign investors, do they really think it's a good idea to pre-sell units overseas?

Also, Edmonton's Chinatown occupies much the same space as its inner city. Nothing more heartwarming than seeing hundreds of people sleeping rough in -25 weather, while a bunch of unoccupied 'investment units' sit empty and warm above them.

otter space
Apr 10, 2007

Danny LaFever posted:

I told him I wouldn't buy a sound house at the moment so I really don't think you should buy an obviously flawed one. Then his Realtor of all people told him not to bother and that somebody offered list price for the house... :shrug:

otter space posted:

This beauty is for sale in my neighbourhood:



Still tons of interested parties coming by daily, but no one is allowed inside.

Sold as of this week. List price was $499k.

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe

Albino Squirrel posted:

From Edmonton

After all the issues in Vancouver with absentee foreign investors, do they really think it's a good idea to pre-sell units overseas?

Also, Edmonton's Chinatown occupies much the same space as its inner city. Nothing more heartwarming than seeing hundreds of people sleeping rough in -25 weather, while a bunch of unoccupied 'investment units' sit empty and warm above them.

More money for the FIRE industry. What's not to like?

Rime
Nov 2, 2011

by Games Forum
The curious case of Vancouver's Bates House blaze

quote:

The explosion that destroyed the “Bates House” in Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood on Aug. 2 was so powerful it blew the roof off along with the tops of the trees surrounding it.

A powerful blaze quickly engulfed the small home, built in 1899 and protected by heritage laws, and rapidly spread to the larger 1894 vintage building beside it.

Firefighters could do nothing to save the two vacant homes, but stopped the blaze after minor damage was inflicted on a neighbouring house that was home to six people.

Three weeks later blackened rubble still sits on the two lots beside a railroad overpass in the 1000-block Keefer Street, a quiet block in Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood.

Not as tangible as the charred ruins, but perhaps more ugly, are questions surrounding the fire’s cause and development of the two lots.

A sold sign was placed on the Bates House the day of the fire, Strathcona real estate agent Rick Stonehouse told The Province. It was vacant and had a history of squatters and vandals. A developer had bought the property from the previous owner, a businessman who prepared the lot for redevelopment.

Value for the Bates House lot had jumped a year ago after a deal with city planners. The deal — known as a “Heritage Revitalization Agreement” (HRA) — is a common city hall strategy to achieve heritage protection in exchange for enhanced development potential, according to head planner Brian Jackson.

The owner was permitted to enlarge the Bates House and turn it into a duplex, and build a third townhouse on the lot, in exchange for preserving the Bates House.

“The recommended heritage designation and HRA of the Bates House, will ensure that the heritage building is rehabilitated, conserved and protected from inappropriate exterior alterations and from demolition,” a 2012 staff report said.

Neighbours on Keefer Street say the Bates House had become a rundown shack with dubious heritage value, but it was covered in ivy and had cute blue shutters and attractive porches when it was put on Vancouver’s heritage register in 1986. It was bought for $430,000 in 2011 by a businessman with interests in Hong Kong, London and Vancouver, according to records.

The businessman put the Bates House on the market in July 2014 for $799,000. The 1894 home next door was also put on the market in July 2014 for $799,000, records say. It was owned by an Abbotsford woman who purchased it 10 years ago for $405,000, according to records. On July 30 she had received permits to restore the 1894 home as a duplex, real estate sources say.

At the time of the fire the 1894 home, which was not under heritage protection, was in the process of being sold, but the sale was not completed until about a week after. It is believed one developer now owns both lots, according to some sources. Stonehouse said he is not permitted to disclose the name of the Bates House buyer, and he doesn’t know who bought the 1894 home.

Property documents obtained by The Province do not currently list the new owner of each lot. Land Title officials say this is a bit unusual, but can occur if legal paperwork is delayed.

Vancouver police now are leading a suspicious-fire investigation, after collaborating with fire department investigators. According to sources familiar with the investigations, it is believed the Aug. 2 fire was an arson, but police and fire department spokespeople told The Province they can’t confirm this or comment on details of the investigation.

The two 19th-century homes were surrounded by construction fencing at the time of the blaze, and according to city records Vancouver’s fire prevention services had been aware of fire risk for two years. City staff had been working with the Bates House owner and neighbours “to secure the unoccupied house and to implement various strategies to minimize risk,” documents say.

Without commenting directly on this investigation, Leo Knight, a former police officer, said any investigation into arson will look at motive and opportunity.

“In cases involving heritage homes, a key aspect of the investigation will be to confirm or discount whether the property would be worth more if rebuilding did not have to abide by heritage bylaws,” said Knight, who has investigated arson fires.

Knight said one question in any of these types of investigation is, “Who benefits?”

Garry Clement, a former RCMP superintendent, said ownership will be part of any arson investigation.

“In this case, I would look at timing of city hall applications, redevelopment plans, interaction between applicants and city hall employees to determine what was being pursued in terms of the property redevelopment … just to be sure that all angles are covered,” said Clement, a 30-year RCMP veteran.

Don Berg, who has lived for 43 years in the Keefer Street co-operative home that sustained minor damage in the Bates House fire, said he woke to the sound of a loud explosion at 3:05 a.m. on Aug. 2.

“All the trees, the tops are all blown off, the roof is blown off,” Berg said in an interview. “It has to be an explosion.

“The fire inspector told me nobody blows the tops of trees off in a house that has no water, no gas, no electricity in five years.”

Berg claimed he was told investigators suspected the fire was brought “in a bucket, and lit.”

Police have not identified any suspects or said how many suspects there are.

Stonehouse, the agent who listed the Bates House, said: “I think this was a bit of a fluke ... the house had been vacant and some squatters had been there.”

Stonehouse said the Bates House seller was encouraged by the city to save it.

“It happens all the time in Strathcona. The city can’t make you keep an old building, but they can give you incentives,” Stonehouse said.

“So they allowed him a third unit in the back, which made it worth his while to restore the heritage house.

“He put it on the market as a development site, and then the developer came along and bought it to build exactly what (the previous owner) had planned for.”

In an interview, Vancouver’s top planner Brian Jackson said the way the HRA program is supposed to work, “you cannot tear down the house and build an identical house.”

“You have to have saved the elements that would have been previously identified, because you would have got some kind of benefit, usually a heritage bonus, for doing that.”

In a followup interview after The Province learned details of the Bates House fire, Jackson said triplex building-permit plans attached to the property before the fire will be adhered to, “no more, no less.”

“In this one instance, because of the fire, while it is being investigated for cause, the new owner is required by the HRA to replicate the building, in basically the location.”

Stonehouse said he believes Strathcona’s heritage look should be preserved, but the city’s plans could use some modification.

“It doesn’t often make sense because they want you to retain the old building and the old windows, so you have to spend a lot of money to make it airtight,” Stonehouse said.

“By starting with new materials and replicating the look of a heritage house it can result in a ‘better building.’”

Since the vast number of sneakier arsons over the years have resulted in no charges, developers are now just straight up using TNT to get around our (already so disgustingly weak as to be non-existent) heritage bylaws. :v:

This article also highlights how many vacant houses there are sitting empty in Vancouver, waiting to mysteriously burn down so the land can be sold, rather than being rented.

cowofwar
Jul 30, 2002

by Athanatos
You can often get around building or zoning restrictions by ignoring the building until it becomes condemned at which point it clears the restrictions and you can demolish and do what you want.

Rime
Nov 2, 2011

by Games Forum

cowofwar posted:

You can often get around building or zoning restrictions by ignoring the building until it becomes condemned at which point it clears the restrictions and you can demolish and do what you want.

See: The Pantages.


quote:

Located closer to Alberta than the Shuswap & much more pristine. Lakefront lot at Galena Shores offers a large building site on just under 1 acre of land w/ 82.4 ft of lakefrontage. Fully serviced lot w/ underground power, telephone, water & sewer. Amazing value!
Size: 0.92 of an acre
Area: KOOTENAYS
Price: $218,000 (No GST)

Ahh, Albertan rig pigs. Driving up the price of rural BC acreage for 14 years and counting! :allears:

Rime fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Aug 27, 2014

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
http://business.financialpost.com/2014/08/27/how-fears-of-overheating-are-driving-canadian-homebuilders-to-look-south/

quote:

Overheating worries at home are driving Canada’s homebuilders south of the border where they buy up rural land, betting on a recovery in the U.S. suburban housing market even as many local players remain on the sidelines.

Homebuilders such as Mattamy Homes and Brookfield Residential Properties Inc are buying undeveloped land in Florida, Texas and other states where prices tumbled during the global financial crisis and remain well below pre-crisis levels.

The companies said that by moving now they give themselves enough time to prepare the land and build homes so they will be ready for sale once the U.S. recovery gains momentum in a couple of years.

“We are probably a good two years away before we are at a normalized U.S. housing market and so it is actually a good time to go and buy in the U.S.,” Mattamy Homes Chief Operating Officer Brian Johnston told Reuters.

He said the company was focusing on suburban areas, where more and far cheaper land is available than in the cities, allowing to build on a bigger scale.

Mattamy and its peers also expect to hit a sweet spot with retirees and affluent second-home buyers who want amenities like shopping, dining and entertainment, and “snowbirds” — Canadians who migrate to southern U.S. states for the winter.

Some analysts warn Canadian builders could end up waiting much longer than they expect for returns from those investments and many of their U.S. rivals appear not sold yet on the idea of suburban market revival.

“There is little bit of a timing risk. You can go buy the land now but it will be sometime before demand really bounces back,” said Ryan Severino, an economist at real estate research firm Reis.

Related
Existing home sales in Canada rise for sixth straight month in July: CREA
Canadian housing to start showing signs of easing over next two years, says CMHC
TALE OF TWO MARKETS

The contrast between the Canadian’s vigorous push into the U.S. market and caution of their local rivals largely reflects starkly different market conditions in which they operate.

Canadian house prices have doubled in the past 11 years and household debt to GDP ratio is around the all-time high of 164, fuelling concerns that the market might be overheating. In the United States that ratio is closer to 80% according to data published by the St. Louis Federal Reserve and the market is still at early stages of a tentative recovery after buckling in the second half of 2013.

New housing starts bounced in July and the National Association of Home Builders expects a 26% rise next year while the nation’s realtors’ association is forecasting new home prices to rise 4% by mid-2015. But new home sales fell for the second straight month in July and just like north of the border there are concerns about affordability of housing in the light of stagnating incomes.

U.S. builders are also working through a backlog of unsold homes, which limits their ability to finance new projects.
Inventory of new houses reached an equivalent of 6 month’s sales in July, the highest level since October 2011, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

“Many of our smaller builders don’t have the capital and the banks are reluctant to lend to purchase land,” said David Crowe, chief economist at the Washington D.C.-based National Association of Home Builders.

LAND AHOY!

Unfettered by such restraints Canadian builders are pressing ahead with projects in their southern rivals’ backyard.

Privately held Mattamy, the largest Canadian homebuilder, with annual revenue of over $1-billion, made its biggest land purchase ever with a 9,600-acre (38.9 square kilometer) buy in Florida this year. It also operates in Minnesota, Arizona, North Carolina and other parts of Florida.

Landmark Group, one of Alberta’s largest homebuilders, has bought land in Phoenix, Arizona, to build its first condominiums in the United States. It plans to expand into Texas, California and Georgia.

Calgary, Alberta-based Brookfield Residential said it will start developing several new projects this year, well ahead of an initial 2016 schedule, thanks to the strength of the U.S. market.

The company expects its U.S. operations to contribute half of its total revenue by the end of 2015, up from 43% at the end of 2013, Chief Executive Alan Norris said.

Ironically, part of the U.S. market’s appeal is abundance of cheap land. Canada is the world’s second biggest country, but most of it is sparsely populated and building activity focuses heavily on big cities such as Toronto and Vancouver.

According to Severino parcels of land in Florida were available this year for as little as US$3.50-4.50 per square foot whereas land prices for condominiums in parts of Toronto would fetch $55 per square foot.

“In the U.S., given the affordability and the fact that prices in the suburbs went down more significantly than in the cities you will see more and more options and opportunities outside big cities,” said CIBC analyst Benjamin Tal.


Tell your dumbass friends and coworkers.

etalian
Mar 20, 2006

otter space posted:

Sold as of this week. List price was $499k.

I can't wait for a weepy blog about the new owner having to spend thousands of dollars to fix poorly installed electrical wiring and raccoon poo poo in the attic.

Danny LaFever
Dec 29, 2008


Grimey Drawer

Cultural Imperial posted:

Where is your coworker buying?

Tell him the internet called him a dumb rear end in a top hat.

Northend Saskatoon. Already said I'd beat the poo poo out of him if he tried to buy it.

Rime
Nov 2, 2011

by Games Forum

etalian posted:

I can't wait for a weepy blog about the new owner having to spend thousands of dollars to fix poorly installed electrical wiring and raccoon poo poo in the attic.

There is no way it wasn't purchased as a tear down. Even early millenium McMansions are tear downs now.

DrLexus
Jun 30, 2010

Danny LaFever posted:

Northend Saskatoon. Already said I'd beat the poo poo out of him if he tried to buy it.

I also live in Saskatoon. No one should be buying anything here.

I recently had to take the bus as my car was in the shop for a few days. A guy from Rosewood(suburb far out of the way) complained to the driver the Downtown Direct buses since now combined were skipping Rosewood.

Who buys a new house in Rosewood, and then suffers through a 40 minute bus ride to get to work on time? People who put all their money in their modular home on a 20' wide lot, and then can't afford a car and $140/month parking pass. Why live in a city as small as Saskatoon and then face a commute longer than what some Torontonians face?

We have some really bright lights in this city.

PT6A
Jan 5, 2006

Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

Albino Squirrel posted:

Also, Edmonton's Chinatown occupies much the same space as its inner city. Nothing more heartwarming than seeing hundreds of people sleeping rough in -25 weather, while a bunch of unoccupied 'investment units' sit empty and warm above them.

Same in Calgary, but you also get to see people drive by in supercars and go to six-figure salaried jobs. Part of the problem is that, when you're chronically homeless and living on the streets, you're looking up at pretty much everything and everyone. We should take steps to address homelessness (and Calgary, at least, is doing fairly well), not feel bad that we live in places where the homeless can see us in our relative wealth.

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
http://findandflipevent.com/dtm/ind...6a-ce4ce35a82c1

COME TO MY SEMINAR

JawKnee
Mar 24, 2007





You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line
man I don't want that guy anywhere near my backyard

I don't even have a backyard!

triplexpac
Mar 24, 2007

Suck it
Two tears in a bucket
And then another thing
I'm not the one they'll try their luck with
Hit hard like brass knuckles
See your face through the turnbuckle dude
I got no love for you

The fine print is incredible. It's hard to pick a favourite part, but I enjoyed "Than Merrill is not able to attend all live events" which probably means he will not be at ANY of the events.

peter banana
Sep 2, 2008

Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.
I like the "WIN AN INCOME PROPERTY WORHT OVER $60,000!!!!!"

Man, I'd love to see what $60k for an "income property" gets you these days.

Lexicon
Jul 29, 2003

I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Shoeshine boy moment?

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
http://business.financialpost.com/2014/08/28/house-prices-keep-going-up-but-they-are-more-affordable-thanks-to-cheap-debt/

I think it's insane that affordability is described in terms of debt service rates. It's like all of a sudden the price of your house doesn't matter anymore and 600000 is just a little bit of money. If that were the case, we should all max out our credit cards right? And buy Porsches on 96 month leases.

quote:


“It was more affordable to own a home in virtually all provincial and major local markets across Canada in Q2, and in the face of solid price gains no less,” said Craig Wright, chief economist with RBC, in a release.


The site ratespy.ca says variable mortgages with a five-year term come with a rate as low as 2.25% today while fixed rate mortgage for five years are now as low as 2.67%.

“We had anticipated a rebound in activity from earlier this year when the harsher than normal winter weather took hold, but the biggest drop in fixed mortgage rates in almost four years and resulting improvement in affordability also gave the Canadian housing market a boost of extra energy,” said Mr. Wright.

gently caress you Craig Wright

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/mortgages/let-renters-pay-your-mortgage/article20196384/

quote:

When Sheilah and Vince Galati started looking for a new place to live last year, the North Vancouver, B.C., couple initially considered downsizing. With a young family, it wasn’t that they needed less space. Rather, they wanted lower mortgage payments.

After seeing a few lower-priced homes that could be described politely as fixer-uppers, they happened to take a look at a character home. Situated within walking distance to the beach, shops and a neighbourhood pub, it was larger and more expensive than what they had in mind, but they fell in love with it. The home also had a legal two-bedroom suite that generates $1,500 a month in gross rental income. That sealed the deal.

“I’d been wanting to move for a while; the house we were in just wasn’t quite the right house for us,” Ms. Galati says. “I was thinking of downsizing so we could really get on top of our mortgage and pay it off quickly.

“When I saw this house, I could really imagine our family growing up there,” adds the mother of two. “It’s been life-changing. I feel it’s made our lives so much better.”

Despite mortgage rates being at historical lows, exorbitant housing prices in the Vancouver area mean buyers need to find ways to make a mortgage work. Many first-time buyers or those in a condo or townhouse wanting to move to a single-family home are seeking places that bring in rental income, whether it’s a suite or sufficient space for student boarders.

Mortgage consultant Karen Gibbard of North Vancouver’s Gibbard Group Financial says many buyers are wanting to “push the envelope” and borrow as much as they can for a bigger place, a newer home or a property in a better location. “Monthly payments don’t seem to be the focus as much as what those monthly payments can buy,” Ms. Gibbard says.

Erin Murray of Vancouver and her family take in one or two international students at a time in their 2,400-square-foot home, with each paying $850 a month. The family must provide a room with a desk for each boarder, as well as meals. They’ve had students stay anywhere from three weeks to five months, but friends have had stays as long as two years.

“This allows me to stay at home with the kids and still earn money,” Ms. Murray says. “You have to account for groceries and declare the money for income taxes, but it’s a way of supporting our income, and it’s neat for the kids to learn about other cultures.”

Although having boarders helps with the monthly expenses, it won’t enable someone to qualify for a bigger mortgage, unlike a legal suite.

“Very often what I see is people moving from an apartment or a townhouse and thinking: I’ve got this townhouse worth $600,000 and I’d love to get into a home. … That’s probably going to run around $900,000,” says North Vancouver real-estate agent Paul Boenisch, who is with Sotheby’s International Realty Canada. “That’s a big jump. That’s going to increase their cost about $1,400 a month, but if they’ve got a suite, that can happen.

“If you look at spending $200,000 more for a home, the cost to finance that, if we look at a 3-per-cent, five-year fixed [mortgage], to be conservative … that works out to $950 per month the mortgage would increase,” he adds. “I see suites in more high-end homes that will rent for over $2,000 a month. That’s significant. If somebody buys a big home – 4,000 square feet – they’re happy to rent out a suite downstairs for $1,800 and cover $400,000 worth of financing.”

Mr. Boenisch notes clients commonly ask if a home has a suite or whether one could be put in and at what cost. Besides rental income, an advantage of a suite is having a potential place for aging parents to live down the road. Plus, you can always reclaim the space as your own if you need or want it.

But being a landlord has its headaches.“You’re going to be sharing your living space, and a lot of people don’t want to do that,” Mr. Boenisch notes.

Although mortgage-helpers can help make a larger house more affordable or enable people to get out of a strata property and into a home, Ms. Gibbard says buyers need to be cautious.

“With new rules in place by the lenders and high-ratio insurance companies, it makes the qualification a little trickier than what it appears on first blush,” she says. “Lenders simply don’t allow full use of the rental income for qualification purposes.

“For budgeting purposes, people tend to subtract the full amount of the rental income off the mortgage payments,” she adds. “In reality, lenders and high-ratio insurance companies don’t allow the use of 100 per cent of the rental income for qualification purposes and, in a lot of cases, require the basement suite to be legal and registered with the municipality.”

If someone buys a property with a 5-per-cent down payment and has a legal basement suite that would rent for $1,000 a month, the lender or high-ratio insurance company would allow up to 50 per cent of the rental income to be added to the client’s income for qualification purposes; in this case, $500.

“The traditional qualification calculation allows a client to borrow up to 35 per cent of their income for housing costs,” Ms. Gibbard explains. “In this example, this means that a client is allowed to use 35 per cent of the $500, which translates into the client’s $1,000 per month rental income becoming $175 per month worth of income for qualification purposes. Right now, $175 per month covers payments on a $37,000 mortgage based on a 2.99-per-cent rate and a 25-year amortization.”

Buying a bigger or better home now at a low interest rate is one thing. Being able to carry that mortgage should rates rise is another.

That was one factor Jody Butler made sure she and her husband considered when they bought a newer home in Vancouver a few years ago. They moved from a 1,350-square-foot townhouse to a 2,000-square-foot home with a 650-square-foot, two-bedroom suite that they rent out for $1,200 a month. They refinanced their mortgage at a lower rate, no longer have a monthly strata fee of $300, and are paying less now than they did before. They’re also able to put money into registered retirement savings plans, registered education savings plan for their young child and travel.

“You might have a great rate now, but are you going to be able to afford it if rates go up?” Ms. Butler says. “If you’re living that close to the edge where you can’t afford a percentage of an increase, you might want to rethink it. And what if there’s a downturn in the rental market? Can you go those couple of months without the suite rented out? You don’t want to have to be paycheque to paycheque. … We made sure we weren’t going to be house poor.

“If you rent out a suite, you have to remember it’s gross income,” she adds. “You have to declare it as income and you end up paying 25-per-cent tax on it. Property transfer tax can be huge, too; that’s another thing you have to think of if you’re coming from a condo or townhouse.”

Like the Butlers, the Galatis have found that the move to a bigger, better place with a suite from their ho-hum 1970s home has allowed them to focus on other financial areas.

“We’ve been able to give ourselves a cushion for any updates we need doing,” Ms. Galati says. “We have money in the bank now for repairs, where before we were owing money. We’re not scrambling for cash. I feel like we have more breathing room now.”

Our finance geniuses:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/vince-galati/7a/32b/229
https://www.linkedin.com/profile/vi...Pcmpt%3Aprimary

Vince is a 'dev tech' at Westport and Sheila is an 'independent events services professional'. My guess is these idiots don't even pull in 80k/year in annual income.

namaste friends fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Aug 28, 2014

Rime
Nov 2, 2011

by Games Forum
This highlights what I've been saying for years: rents aren't going to drop any time soon, because they are fixed to mortgages.

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe

Rime posted:

This highlights what I've been saying for years: rents aren't going to drop any time soon, because they are fixed to mortgages.

Mortgages have been dropping for over a decade but rents haven't changed. I think they're independent of each other.

Lexicon
Jul 29, 2003

I had a beer with Stephen Harper once and now I like him.

Rime posted:

This highlights what I've been saying for years: rents aren't going to drop any time soon, because they are fixed to mortgages.

That's way overly reductive - basically nothing is priced in terms of what its input costs are.

Albino Squirrel
Apr 25, 2003

Miosis more like meiosis

PT6A posted:

Same in Calgary, but you also get to see people drive by in supercars and go to six-figure salaried jobs. Part of the problem is that, when you're chronically homeless and living on the streets, you're looking up at pretty much everything and everyone. We should take steps to address homelessness (and Calgary, at least, is doing fairly well), not feel bad that we live in places where the homeless can see us in our relative wealth.
Oh, I have no problem with new condos going up; Chinatown is way too close to downtown to have been economically depressed as long as it has, so it's good that gravel parking lots are now turning into buildings. I'm also encouraged that city council is mandating a number of 3 bedroom units, because it's extremely difficult for families to find anywhere to live if you don't want to buy a detached home in Edmonton now.

My issue is specifically with marketing units to overseas investors; if Vancouver's experience is anything to go by, many of those are likely to sit empty and that would be a shame given Edmonton's ~1% vacancy rate and thousands of homeless. I'm not upset at gentrification, I'm upset about the potential waste of resources.

LemonDrizzle
Mar 28, 2012

neoliberal shithead

Rime posted:

This highlights what I've been saying for years: rents aren't going to drop any time soon, because they are fixed to mortgages.
This is untrue - mortgage payments (and house prices) are only very loosely related to rents in general. If you have a property with a monthly mortgage payment of $2k but nobody's willing to pay more than $1k/mo for it, you're going to rent it at $1k, sell up to cut your losses, or convert it into something that gives a better rental yield rather than having a void period and eating the entire monthly payment with no compensatory income. Similarly, if your mortgage payment is $2k/mo but you've got prospective tenants offering $4k/mo, you're hardly going to turn down the extra money.

e: as an aside, you guys should follow the 'TMA owning rental property' thread in BFC - there's a few posts in there that I think would literally make CI's head explode, scanners-style. F. ex.

quote:

Do the HELOC and cash. It's way less trouble. You don't have to suck an underwriter's dick with mountains of paperwork to get a mortgage, you save a few thousand on closing fees, and you can usually negotiate a slightly better price because the sellers and bank know how much less of a hassle it will be. I just did the same thing to buy my second apartment, I closed a week ago and started renting yesterday. Now I'm getting a HELOC on this one that can almost pay for the next. I'm just daisy-chaining HELOCs to keep buying apartments in this building if it keeps working out.

LemonDrizzle fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Aug 29, 2014

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
daisy chaining HELOCs

:lol:

Anyway...some good news for Canada's economy.
https://twitter.com/theoargitis/status/505330385102721024

quote:

StatsCan to release 2nd quarter GDP figures in about 5 minutes. Economists expect to see an annualized rate of 2.7% vs 1.2% in first quarter

Now is as good a time to go HELOC crazy as any other I guess.

https://businessincanada.com/2014/08/29/canada-gdp-q2-economic-growth/

quote:

The Canadian economy’s acceleration in the second quarter exceeded economists’ expectations.

According to Statistics Canada, the economy grew by an annualized 3.1 percent quarter-over-quarter. This is the strongest rate of growth since Q3 2011.

The consensus estimate was for Q2 growth to come in at 2.7 percent, while the Bank of Canada projected growth of 2.5 percent for the quarter.

Household spending contributed the most to growth, though net exports were a close second. The former segment added 2 percentage points to Q2 GDP, while the latter added 1.75 percentage points.

“Though export gains offer hope for half of the BoC’s ‘growth rotation’, muted business spending could suggest no grounds to cheer just yet for the other key element,” wrote CIBC economist Peter Buchanan ahead of this release.

Government spending and business investment also made positive contributions to growth, while a drawdown in inventories weighed on the headline figure.

The household saving rate decreased markedly in Q2, falling from 5 percent to 3.9 percent.

In Q1, gross domestic product rose at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent quarter over-quarter, its worst performance since Q4 2012. This reading was revised downward to 0.9 percent. However, that still far outpaced the American economy, which shrank in the first three months of 2014. In Q2, GDP growth south of the border came in at 4.2 percent.

For the month of June, real GDP rose 0.3 percent month-over-month.

The loonie caught a bid once these figures crossed the wires.

More details to come.

ocrumsprug
Sep 23, 2010

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
I can easily visualize someone, unable to fathom how dividend stocks work, daisy chaining HELOCs and leveraging themselves into a small rental empire. However I cannot fathom why anyone would choose to do that in one building. :psyduck:

The inevitable $30k X # units special assessment bill will really make the convenience of not having to drive much on rent day seem like a silly consideration.

namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-29/oil-leaking-from-canada-trade-data-muddies-poloz-outlook.html

tl;dr our economic wellbeing is tied so tightly to oil that Stats Can can't produce accurate economic reports because the oil industry isn't producing accurate reports.

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namaste friends
Sep 18, 2004

by Smythe
https://twitter.com/dbcurren/status/505341563464323072

quote:

@dbcurren
Scotia: #Canada #housing keeps forging ahead at swift clip, for better or for worse. Investment in housing rose 11.9% annualized 2Q #cdnecon

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