Andreas Conrad: [background] “I can’t do anything … unless I’ve sold.”

Announcer: “Andreas Conrad knows the market pain all too well… he’s trying to downsize, but can’t sell his duplex, originally priced at just over $2M, now $300K cheaper…
It’s been on the market for five months and Conrad says, without a sale, he’ll be forced out of retirement.”

Conrad: “For me now it means I will definitely have to go back to work… at the, at the end of the summer.. ah.. if nothing moves.”

Announcer: “This homeowner is just hoping his duplex sells, and fast. If it does, he’ll be back in the market to buy a condo right away.”

- anecdote extracted from ‘Vancouver residential real estate plunges’, CTV.ca, 5 Sep 2012 12:47pm [hat-tip Jeff Murdock]

Many Vancouverites are overdependent on their RE holdings for their financial health, and for their retirement plans.
This gentleman appears to have retired early based on the paper ‘value’ of his RE holdings, and already his plans are awry.
It is noteworthy that this is occurring very early in the down-cycle. We anticipate that many more will find themselves in similar situations once price descents become significant.
- vreaa
—

Here follow comments posted regarding this CTV piece, from CTV and VCI:

“Am I suppose to feel sorry for a guy who has a home valued around $2 mill and can not sell it and have to return to work. I do not know the age of this man but he looked like he wanted to retire early off his home.”
- leo, at CTV.ca, 6 Sep 2012 2:42pm

“Yeah, Andreas…people elsewhere have to actually work to make money, cuz their dwelling-place doesn’t actually generate income so they can retire at 50…”
- kabloona at VCI 5 Sep 2012 6:57pm

“I saw that guy on CTV news too. Crying that he’s going to have to get a job soon if he can’t flip his crack shack for 2 million. He didn’t look old enough to be retired to me. I said out loud to the TV, “Good, you should get a job.” Why would anyone feel entitled not to work for a living? Why would anyone go on the news and expect sympathy that they might have to get a job to earn an income?”
- Joe_Blown_Away_By_High_Housing_Costs at VCI 5 Sep 2012 7:09pm

“I would like to be the first in line to order a latte from Andreas when he starts his new job.”
- Best place on meth at VCI 5 Sep 2012 8:53

“Andreas seems like a perfectly nice guy to me; just having a hard time adjusting his expectations.”
- Anonymous at VCI 5 Sep 2012 10:37pm

“We live in a world where people have increasingly lost the distinction between ‘making money’ and ‘producing wealth’. Most people out there would be perplexed by the notion that there is even a difference at all. There is no less admiration for someone who becomes a millionaire by picking the right stocks than someone who gets rich building a real business or producing a tangible service that creates real wealth.
In fact, given the choice, the overwhelming majority of people would rather get rich without working at all, which is a big part of why we currently have the most morbidly obese housing bubble in history.
Sadly, I don’t think people will wake up to the distinction even after the bubble bursts. Since so many people will be negatively affected (70% of home owning Canadians), expect to see a whole lot of resentment and bitterness at all the ‘lost wealth’ rather than a realization that it was never there in the first place.”
- Yalie at VCI 5 Sep 2012 7:59pm
—

The CTV piece was also noteworthy for these two quotes:

Andrey Pavlov, SFU: “The time on the market has tripled since 2 months ago, so that’s a crash by any measure.” [We'd agree with the sentiment but disagree with the semantics. A crash will only be said to have occurred when prices plunge. -ed.]

Cameron Muir, RE Association: “It wasn’t too long ago that we had the greatest financial crisis since the great depression, followed by a global recession. If that wasn’t the tipping point or a trigger for a deflation of an asset bubble, I don’t know what is.” [In 2008 Vancouver RE was rescued by emergency low interest rates, which it sorely did not need. This delayed our hour of reckoning, but it seems now upon us. -ed.]
—

UPDATE, 1 Oct 2012:
Headlined property price has since been reduced to $1,599,000
[hat-tip Van guy].
Click on image to enlarge:

The following 18 comments all appeared on VREAA over a 4 hour period last night [26-27 Sep 2012], each on a different thread, and all from a commenter using the handle ‘Joe Manhas’. They all attempt to promote ‘bchomez.com’, a site that sells BC RE. Impressive work. The comments are distracting, particularly once one takes note of their motivation, and they have all been removed from the respective threads. But they are preserved here en masse as an example of what folks are doing to promote Vancouver RE related activity at this stage in the cycle. ‘Joe’ now joins ‘Fred’, up to now the only poster specifically cited on our spam filter. – vreaa

Submitted on 2012/09/26 at 10:19 pm
Sounds crazy, but Vancouver is one of the most livable cities in the world they say… http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/26 at 10:23 pm
I understand that there are 5005 units coming downtown.. these developers wouldn’t be investing so much money into these projects unless they were confident that they could sell them… http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/26 at 10:29 pm
What happen to the days when people lived within their means? Vancouver isn’t cheap however if you want a nice house, maybe you can spend a little less on the cars.. Tough to live a steak and champagne lifestyle on a beer – Mac N’ Chess budget.. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/26 at 10:32 pm
Make sense.. we all love things that are free.. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/26 at 11:37 pm
They say money don’t grow on trees… Not for these anymore.. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 12:30 am
The bubble is only bursting because the Government wants it to burst.. It’s not hard to slow down the machine when you got this wrench that that keeps tightening and tightening… Also when the government turns off the immigration tap, if only a trickle is getting through wouldn’t expect things to slow down? Once that wrench is gone and the tap is turned on full blast we’ll be back to a blazing hot market… Buy Now!! http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 12:34 am
Sounds like the property was bought to high and sold to low… Next time be a little more aggressive negotiating a better deal and work the deal harder on the selling side.. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 12:41 am
Your poorer than you think? People in Vancouver have made huge money in real estate.. Do you think all those millionaires around Vancouver made it by working 9-5.. We’ve had an incredible run.. still big money to be made.. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 12:46 am
Your House Is A Big Fridge, a place to store stuff?? Its a place to live and a place to retired after it builds equity for 20 years… Houses go up in value over time, fridges depreciate.. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 12:48 am
Sugar Coat sorta… As they say what goes up must come down… the flip side is also true what goes down must come up.. Buy Now .. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 12:55 am
The sale of you own person home is one of the few tax free opportunities we have as Canadians, downsizing, upsizing or other, just remember not to do it too often as the government might see this as a business of re-selling property apposed to selling for personal reasons.. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 12:58 am
know the rules, play by the rules.. if your going to break them don’t get caught http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 1:04 am
If don’t like “Honda” can you take a Toyota instead? http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 1:10 am
I agree.. the government is intentanally killing the market.. what ever happen to the Adam Smith theory of letting the market take care of it’s self… Too much government interference .. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 1:17 am
I bet in the 3 house sales the profit was enough to take ten trips. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 1:24 am
In for the long haul… Real Estate in most places is for the long haul.. Vancouver real estate market has given the average investor (with money) to make huge gains in short periods of time. Huge money can be made on the down slide as well. By now http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 1:29 am
Vancouver as a safe, long-term place to park some money when it comes to real estate. We owe a lot to those around the world that have help Vancouver residents become millionaires by buying holding and selling.. http://bchomez.com

Submitted on 2012/09/27 at 1:40 am
As rough as the stats might show, Vancouver will rebound.. this is the time to buy while real estate is cheap… http://bchomez.com

Hats-off to David Baines for the article, and for pointing out that the Vancouver Sun itself had promoted a shifty RE project.
Recent stories of unsavoury players in the Vancouver RE business can’t be helping sentiment.
- vreaa

“34463 ROCKRIDGE PL, Mission
2165sqft SFH on 7212sqft lot.
Now on the market:
04-Jul-12 $469,900.00
28-Jul-12 $464,900.00 -2%
01-Aug-12 $459,900.00 -3%
03-Aug-12 $458,900.00 -3%
09-Aug-12 $457,900.00 -3%
10-Aug-12 $456,900.00 -3%
15-Aug-12 $455,900.00 -3%
17-Aug-12 $454,900.00 -4%
23-Aug-12 $453,900.00 -4%
25-Aug-12 $452,900.00 -4%
31-Aug-12 $451,900.00 -4%
02-Sep-12 $450,900.00 -5%
07-Sep-12 $449,900.00 -5%

This home was purchased in 2007 for $540,000!
Thats 16% below the 2007 price!”
- Groundhog at VCI 15 Sep 2012 11:24am

Above photo from Gord Goble [via e-mail, 15 Sep 2012], who writes: “Not the best photo (totally against the sun, taken from a long distance while in my car), but I found the subject pretty interesting nonetheless. Armstrong Cheese = Vancouver real estate. Looks like they’re a wee bit late to the party.
I like the other elements too – the guy walking away disgusted and another billboard that’s also all about fantasy.
Anywho, thought you’d like it. Taken at the Highway 99 – 8th Ave interchange near the border.”

[Thanks Gord, nice shot. We particularly like the fantasy and disgust components. A companion piece to subterranian's photo near Lion's Gate Bridge, 14 Sep 2012. Looks like these guys have the North and the South covered. - vreaa]

For those who claim that, if we see an inflationary period, Vancouver RE would be a good hedge. – vreaa

“When we look at the Canadian housing market we realize how insane things have gotten. I’m amazed by how many of the debt rehab or home flipping shows have migrated to the Canadian market. Of course they rarely mention this thinking the American audience will mindlessly assume they are in some other US city to prime the consumption pump. Yet when we look at the metrics, Canada is poised for a deep and profound correction.”
- from ‘Canadian housing bubble goes into full mania mode – Canadian debt-to-personal income ratio near 145% while US at peak of the housing bubble was at 125%’, Doctor Housing Bubble, 5 Sep 2012

“Société Générale believes Canada still doesn’t have a handle on a frothy real estate market.”
- from ‘Housing bubble is not yet under control,’ SocGen warns Canada’, G&M, 5 Sep 2012

“Owning a home in Ontario – or anywhere in Canada, for that matter – is getting more difficult as affordability, particularly anything larger than a condo, deteriorates each year. …the steady increases are not sustainable. Eventually, this housing bubble will pop, and the economy will suffer.”
- from ‘Housing danger signs’, Simcoe.com, 5 Sep 2012
—

All three articles published today. -ed.

The ‘Detached-Is-Different-From-Attached Premise’, commonly used to argue for never-ending strength for detached prices, often stridently expressed on these and other pages, it is, however, false.
By the trough, prices of all property types will have dropped by roughly similar percentages.
- vreaa

“Overall MOI approaching 11 as Aug/12 is 2nd lowest sales in the last 15 years (since 1998).
Benchmark prices now flat or down YoY and down MoM (inc. detached Van West, Van East down MoM).
Only 75 sales of SFH in Van West in Aug/12: DOWN 42.3% YoY!!
Only 79 sales of SFH in Van East: DOWN 46.6% compared to Aug/11 !!!”
- vanpro at RE Talks 5 Sep 2012 10:04am

“East Vancouver detached benchmark down from 863K to 859K August to Sept.
How does this help you?”
- eyesthebye at RE Talks 5 Sep 2012 6:43pm

—
1. Noteworthy for another bearish headline in the MSM.
2. How does this “help”? Well, this is how crashes look when they start, and, depending on one’s perspective, a large decrease in Vancouver RE prices may be seen to be ‘helpful’ in many respects.
- vreaa

It’s easy to be happy with almost any property when prices are barrelling upwards.
When prices stagnate or start falling, owners become more critical of a property’s shortcomings.
Expect lots of stories like this in the downturn.
- vreaa

People from out of town have… perspective.
- vreaa

#1. I told you about a good friend of mine who bought 2 townhouses, along with his dad who bought 4 of them, in Langley earlier this year. They bought these places because dad’s very good friend advised them to do so (great location (Langley???), great price, great potential for future price increase, and all the usual BS…). It turns out that the “good friend” is also a realtor and “helped” them close the deals (they didn’t even got discount on the realtor fees!!!).
After talking to me a few times, and I guess after countless of sleepless nights (my friend is currently unemployed and has not been able to get a new job in the past couple of month), he has decided to put one of his two townhouses back on the market, hopeful that he can get a good price for it. We’ll see what happens, but if he loses quite a bit of money on it, I wouldn’t be surprised if he and his dad put the other 5 units on the market as well… How many people are there like them in the lower mainland?

#2. A colleague at work (late 20s) bought a townhouse in Ladner a couple of years ago (5%/35y) with his wife. After several discussions with me, he’s decided to put his property for sale (for $10K more than they paid for…) and move to a condo in Richmond, closer to work, bigger, cheaper. I think they’ll lose quite a bit in the process, but all in all, it’s a wise decision to make and they’ll recover fast. What made them change their mind? The fact that so little of their monthly payment went to pay for the principal and so much went to pay for the interest. I could see the disgust on his face when he saw the numbers after I did a simulation for him…

I’m really surprised at people’s ignorance regarding the costs involved when buying a property and how little they know about the market in general when they decide to speculate.
Anyway, I can see the general mood is shifting. I no longer hear around me the classic “market only goes up in Vancouver” and that alone is good news!”

- Makaya at VCI 21 Aug 2012 1:44pm

Lower prices will beget selling, and lower prices still.
- vreaa

An example of a ‘speculative hold’. The owner believes prices will rise in future and is holding the property not for rental yield, but for assumed future price increases.
We are of the opinion that a good percentage of this kind of inventory will be put on the market at significantly lower prices, as it becomes clear that a downward trajectory for prices is establishing itself.
And, yes, this will be disruptive to tenants. The rental market is less stable through a speculative mania in housing, and the unwinding thereof.
- vreaa

Other current sky-high Price:Rent ratio anecdotes from the same VCI thread:

“I am living in Richmond with an (assessed value) : (rent) ratio of about 285.
Strata fees and property taxes not included, why buy now?”
- Anonymous 18 Aug 2012 10:04am

“I’m renting a house in SE Burnaby. Price to rent is somewhere between 350-370 on the conservative side. My best friend is the landlord and I’ve urged him to consider selling. But he will have nothing to do with it. Already has over $1.5mil RE exposure with little other savings. Oh yeah, still looking to buy another investment property because “RE does so much better than the stock market”. Just can’t save people from themselves.”
- How much?? 18 Aug 2012 10:27am

“Here is a unit that has been listed on CL for months (available now) for $2650 per month. The same units are listed for sale at $839K to $879K. So even if they get their asking rent the PR is 316 plus.”
- Anonymous 18 Aug 2012 12:36pm

“Beat you all. 4br house on Ontario. 2012 sale $1.35M. Monthly rent $2850, 2 yr lease. Price/rent 474. I love living here but wouldn’t buy at half the price.”
“Our landlord purchased the property earlier this year as an “investment”. I really can’t understand their business model. The house is an original, nicely-maintained bungalow. New paint, new dishwasher etc.
It’s not a quick flip (we have a 2-year lease) and it’s not a tear down and rebuild, which might make sense. The landlord is shelling out $3k or whatever per month to hold the property. They seem to be invested for the long term.
Of course the potential downside for us is a forced move if the house is sold. We figured that by the end of our lease the house will likely be underwater so that the landlord would not be in a position to sell. We will see how that goes.
I should add the landlord couple are very nice people and I don’t wish them any financial hardship.”
- No Money Down 18 Aug 2012 12:37pm and 19 Aug 2012 10:10am

“I have a whole house (unlike many, home owners, I have no tenants in the basement to worry about) on a nice street off The Drive, assessed at a little over 410 months’ rent.”
- N 18 Aug 2012 1:56pm

“I’m in a 3 bedroom house (we have the place to ourselves), 5 year lease for $1600/mo. House is worth $750,000 based on comps for a ratio of 468.”
- Vulture Fun 18 Aug 2012 11:34pm

“I pay $850 a month for a condo in Surrey. Same unit 2 floors up sold for $253,000 in late 2011. So a ratio of 297:1. You guys are insane with your 400′s ratios.”
- ScubaSteve 19 Aug 2012 12:39am

“I am the winner. I pay 4,400 for a 3,800 ft 6 bedroom (or is it 7?) house in west side.
Assessed close to $3.0 million. For now this is a 660 multiplier.
At the higher price points, it gets more and more un-economic to own and rent these houses out.”
- Van Coffee 19 Aug 2012 8:48am

“I’m at 489 but if I take off the huge strata fees that my landlord pays I go to 696. Strata and ppty tax eat up exactly 50% of my rent cheque. Not a lot left to pay the mortgage and occasional special assessment.
BTW…for all you haters who think we renters are basement dwellers who are broke, I’m writing this poolside in Osoyooss. Thanks landlord!”
- McLovin 19 Aug 2012 11:01am

“For the record – we are in a $1.5M Condo. Strata and taxes are over 1,000 per month and the rent is 3,500 gross (2,500 net of landlord costs). This give you 600.
Property value is no more than the day we moved in.
This represents a $200,000 plus savings and building of equity by renting (we built equity by renting – – – sounds strange).”
- ZRH2YVR 19 Aug 2012 4:52pm

As a late-summer heat wave bathes Vancouver with the stench of rotting compost and chicken parts, municipal officials have set to work drafting plans to rein in the city’s rankest offenders. …
“It’s kind of a chickeny, fishy, boiled-up stink,” said a Wednesday caller to Vancouver’s CKNW radio. “You don’t want to be at home at all,” East Vancouver resident Renata de la Parra told a CTV camera crew. Previous accounts have identified the smell as anything from “hideous” to “revolting” to “a combination between vomit and diarrhea.”
Despite the breakdown, West Coast Reduction’s signature stench is nothing new. As the region’s primary animal waste processing facility, it brings in truckloads of animal parts and used grease every day to cook them into tallow and protein meals. Notoriously, the plant is also where serial killer Robert Pickton admitted to disposing of barrels containing the remains of his victims.
The plant began spewing foul odours onto adjacent working-class homes almost immediately after its 1964 opening. At the time, the plant only generated a paltry 25 complaints a year.
Things have not gotten worse. It’s just a matter that expectations have changed
By 2007, residents in the newly gentrified district were picking up the phone almost twice a day to complain, urged on by “stop the stink” posters pinned up on utility poles. “You spend $1-million on a house, you don’t want it to smell like fish,” East Vancouver resident Lenore Newman told Postmedia News this week.
“Things have not gotten worse,” Ray Robb, Metro Vancouver’s manager of regulation and enforcement, told Vancouver radio on Wednesday. “It’s just a matter that expectations have changed.”
- from ‘Can Vancouver’s anti-stink bylaw pass the smell test?’, National Post, 16 Aug 2012

In most cities, you’d be complaining of the smell.
In Vancouver, you complain of the smell:RE_price ratio.
- vreaa

As oneangryslav2 [at VCI 17 Aug 2012 3:17pm] points out, the Post story is a little misleading. Lenore Newman is both an East Van resident and a professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, a ‘researcher in food security and the environment’. One would reasonably assume from the article above that she was a house owner, but she herself posted the following [Apophenia, The Province, 10:51AM 15 Aug 2012]:
“…I should clarify that they edited what I said. I don’t own a house there, I rent, but I commented that the high housing prices are likely why people are complaining more. But if we get down to it, the plant is the newcomer; Commercial Drive is one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods, and the rendering plant arrived in 1960 during a period when the area was in decline and big business ruled the roost. If you read my blog, Sand and Feathers, you will see that I’m not actually against the plant, though it is becoming clear that they need to bring their technology up to modern standards. And in case people are wondering, I wouldn’t buy a house in East Van, or Vancouver in general; too expensive for what you get. But I understand why people who work hard to buy into the market expect a 2012 level of environmental protection.”

“I wouldn’t buy a house in East Van, or Vancouver in general; too expensive for what you get.”
Bravo, Lenore; agreed.
Another example of the increasing tendency for sensible RE-bearish sentiment to be stated plainly and publicly.
- vreaa
—

On the bracing subject of odours, the following links regarding air quality around a well known condo development (Marine Gateway) near the ‘Vancouver South Transfer Station’ (‘Dump’) forwarded to us by Aldus Huxtable:
1. ‘Addressing Waste Transfer Station Odour’, marinegateway.ca ,
2. ‘Dispersion Modelling of Vancouver South Transfer Station Odour Emissions’, RWDI, Dec 2009

We can first compare to 2008. 2008 saw Vancouver get hit by a freight train, most likely in part because lending was becoming difficult, with higher mortgage rates than today’s, but early 2009 saw such a dramatic decrease in price-payment ratios there was an immediate response to housing activity, in part buoyed by robust population growth. Both these shots in the arm are for the most part no longer present.

Nonetheless we are still in a mode where low interest rates are allowing some households to reduce their payments as their pre-2009 financing terms expire, and this tailwind will be mostly spent in a year or so (and as of now it’s mostly spent already). Rents are increasing and have been on the tight side in the past 2 years or so.

A slowdown in China’s investment spending has likely led to less capital flows being invested in Canadian real estate this year compared to 2009-2011. And this is not only because of so-called “HAM” but also indirectly through a recent boom in hard commodity prices that has subsided somewhat this year — look at how BC-headquartered resource company equities have been doing since 2009.

The Chinese central government has already approved a significant stimulus spend to come into place in Q4 of this year. That will lead to additional economic activity but this is unlikely to have the same impact as previous stimulus efforts as much of the spend will go into servicing existing outstanding nonperforming loans. I would expect some uptick in capital flows into Canada in 2013 but nothing like was seen in the past couple of years and will likely be short-lived.

Mortgage rate spreads have increased for a variety of reasons since 2011, which has partially offset falling interest rates seen earlier this year. Going forward we can expect further crimps on lending through increased spreads and increased loan rejections for Vancouver-area mortgages.

Population growth has continued to slow, in part due to unemployment still being elevated. This looks to be a cyclical trend that is highly dependent upon residential construction activity. It is the nature of BC’s economy that construction boom leads to population growth but as completions mount, population growth subsides, as it is doing now. This cycle looks to be on roughly a 10 year period and it looks 2012 and 2013 lie in a downdraft.

Units under construction are elevated relative to population growth and still appear to be increasing. As completions mount later on this year and into 2013 this will provide an additional headwind for the housing market.

Are there factors that could produce a renewed bout of strength? Well some navel gazing is in order — I for one did not anticipate the veracity of the stimulus from governments and how strongly they affected house prices. I am, now, trying to keep an open mind as to what could come to the rescue this time round, though any insight into what this might plausibly be would be greatly appreciated. A markedly improved US economy in 2013 would be a positive for Canada as a whole.

Aside any additional strength from factors not considered above, I see continued elevated inventory and lower sales continuing through the rest of 2012 and likely through 2013: we need only look at the early part of this century to see the effects of lower population growth. I think the months of inventory levels will be enough to put a downwards pressure on prices as measured on a year-over-year basis. This will not mean that prices are monotonically going to fall — seasonality sees prices buoyed in the spring for a variety of reasons — but any bouts of strength are likely to be muted before renewing their descent in the second half of the year. How much? I’ll say -5% by the end of 2012 and a further -10% by the end of 2013. And that is only a guess based on what I can see based on the factors above. If factors I considered above combine in some way to exacerbate effects, or if some real sh!t starts going down in, say, Asia, things could get worse.”

- jesse (YVRHousingAnalyst) at VCI 17 Aug 2012

jesse’s price drop estimates are conservative but we reckon they’re sensible: they’re the high probability outcomes for the next two years.
We’d add that at any point buying could slow more rapidly, via the effect of sentiment change. If it suddenly becomes ‘common knowledge’ that prices are dropping (this is not yet the case), buyers would lose the desire to overstretch to buy, and the market could freeze up.
- vreaa

“Some potential homebuyers in Vancouver are taking a breather over the summer months”
- Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist, in the press release cited above

Sales volume leads prices. We anticipate more price weakness ahead.
- vreaa

- chart from CREA, via Ben Rabidoux

“Failed Flip
3129 E. 6th Ave, Vancouver
Sold – August 5, 2011 $715,000
Attempted sell as a pre-sale new-build house??? $1,068,000
Listed and cancelled multiple times
Finally listed the original tear-down – Abandoned the build – June 20, 2012 at $759,800
Sold for $700,000
With all those transaction and holding costs – this has to be a $50,000 loss and no success on the build.
Given the builder that owned it – it is probably a good thing that it never got built because it would have probably been a P.O.S.
This is getting boring – I could post stories like this all day. Richmond is going down!!!!!
Also – Most of the West Side sales (other than new) are going for 10% below assessed.”
- ZRH2YVR at VCI 14 Aug 2012 10:00am

“The market may cool, but hopefully housing prices won’t go lower than what the home is worth in today’s market.” – We’d like to see a logician dissect that statement.
Many shadow sellers in this position will end up selling their properties at much lower prices, in psychological distress.
- vreaa

Ben Rabidoux, at his website The Economic Analyst, has recently reviewed the Vancouver RE market in an article entitled ‘Vancouver housing in full correction mode: Implications for Canadian banks’ [3 Aug 2012].
We earlier headlined a single paragraph from Ben’s article (comparing Vancouver and the US with regard to $1 Million homes), but we’d also emphasize that the entire article is worth the read. Check it out.
- vreaa

“For me, it’s boring to the point where I don’t feel very motivated to post. As I said a few days ago, it was more fun as a contrarian fighting a uphill battle in early 2011. Now even the bulls are adapting their stance to “we all know it’s falling, but I guarantee it won’t fall too much for too long, sellers should wait it out” (Their stance used to be “UPUPUP to the Moon!” lol)
I used to get a good share of jeers and typical bullish trash talk, but since a few months ago the resistance almost completely stopped.
It’s not that fun for a bloodthirsty warrior to walk onto the battlefield finding most of the enemies already deserted or defected.”
- VMD at VCI 1 Aug 2012 11:11am

“It all seems so easy. We are no longer fighting a rear guard action in Dunkirk we are 200 miles from Berlin with no Germans in sight.
Where have all the Bulls gone? I guess they are finally realizing that we can be wrong for a very long time but we only need to be right once.”
- McLovin at VCI 1 Aug 2012 9:06pm
—

We’ve also noticed the sudden silence of the bulls.
It can only mean that they are experiencing various aspects of the slowing.
- vreaa