161–170 of 247 posts
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Carney's ability to stoke a housing bubble was what got him the job in the Bank of England.
Absolutely this. Please, please take him back. Seriously, we'll pay you, just take him back.
Holy - I live 5 blocks from the C$64M home mentioned in the article and pay a rent of 1200$ every month.
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I like having everything I need inside a 10 minute walk. If it weren't for work I'd very rarely go outside of this 1Km radius. To do that you need large apartment blocks.
What you need, is a bicycle. But aside from that, small towns often have a more thorough mixing of zone types; you can often live within walking distance of work or school and a small grocery store.
> Canada
That's great, except for the 7 or so months out of the year when it's not.
If flukus prefers dense areas that's his deal... arguing about preferences is dumb.
The whole Pacific coast of North America is becoming a gated region, closed off from those without at least quarter of a million dollars saved up. Unfortunately I think the mild weather and beauty of that area mean prices will never go down. Middle class people are seemingly bound to live in places that are too hot, too cold, or too flat.
It is interesting to look at the map of California and wonder at that huge gap between Carmel and Santa Barbara. No development, no population, its even hard for tourists to find a place to stay, or even a campsite. The tech industry pays all the state's bills, mostly captured by tenured public sector workers, in true socialist fashion. If there's a tech crash, and a few years pass without IPOs, the state will collap…
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What is the "CMHC"?
Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. They insure the banks against mortgage default. People pay a small premium on their monthly mortgage payments so that if they default, the bank is insured for the cash difference of the outstanding amount on the mortgage. As a result, banks in Canada face no risks from mortgage default so there's no reason to deny a mortgage. Over 90% of mortgages made in the past decade are…
By 2010 CMHC had an annual financial surplus of more than $2 billion.[6] CMHC is the largest Crown Corporation in terms of assets with some $26 billion in holdings as of 2008-2009.
If you think this insurance can cause Canadian banks to be more risky in their lending - I don't think that is currently the case.
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Fluff piece? Did we read the same article? It covered at length the issue of the young couple essentially trapped in Surrey, unable to get enough space to have a child. The author really went out of the way to emphasize the wealth of the investors, describing the buyer wanting a nonexistent car. The only remotely fluffy portion was describing the ecosystem of luxury services associated with the lavish spending. I thi…
The requirements this young couple have is mind boggling. The have 111 sq meters and think they cannot have a kid in this space? A lot of my friends live in ~40 sq meters and are happy to have their own place at all. With a kid, even two. Surely they would like to move to a bigger places, but this isn't a showstopper. They would love to have 111 sq meters place. Rising prices of properties is a real issue, but this p…
A lot of this comes from the expectation of what you had growing up versus what is available in your current situation, and how much you actually want kids. Do you want to bring up kids from 0 to 18+ in that same 111 sq meter space? The answer can be no for a few people, and people aren't seeing that they can move to something bigger even if it becomes necessary.
It's also not a good idea to compare floor space 1:1 across regions, floor layouts and building structure can have big impacts. 40 sq m used well can have the same level of comfort as 111 sq m used poorly, but because of various property restrictions (since it's not detached) they might not be able to modify the 111 sq m space in a meaningful way.
The main thing here in this case is that the couple represented have the choice of whether or not to have kids and they see the environment as not good for it. This is the sort of thing that happens when educated people sit down and consider whether or not having kids is the right plan for the moment.
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Why gradual? (not disagreeing, just asking)
Impact on retirees, impact on existing resident property owners, and lack of control over what income tax Ottawa sets are a few reasons.
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They've been willfully ignorant to the numbers for some time. What is to say they aren't misinterpreting the data, fudging it, or ingoring factors like "more houses" or "more energy usage" while the number of people are dropping? This kind of thing goes on all the time here in Beijing, the only reliable way to determine vacancy is to count the lights that come on at night. All the other metrics, including energy cons…
They explain their methodology: http://council.vancouver.ca/20160308/documents/rr1presentati... Does not look easily gameable, and the authors don't strike me as being disingenuous.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/poking-...
What isn't talked about in this article is the effect this is having on the other industries in the city aside from real estate. I believe that Vancouver has potential to be THE tech hub in Canada. Unfortunately, wages are very low compared to the cost of housing, and so the cost of living is super high. Combine that with extremely low vacancy rates, and it is very hard to attract talent from out of town. In fact, ma…
I don't understand how Seattle hasn't had a big housing problem compared to the valley or Vancouver. They have a decent tech sector and they're in close proximity to Vancouver.
What isn't talked about in this article is the effect this is having on the other industries in the city aside from real estate. I believe that Vancouver has potential to be THE tech hub in Canada. Unfortunately, wages are very low compared to the cost of housing, and so the cost of living is super high. Combine that with extremely low vacancy rates, and it is very hard to attract talent from out of town. In fact, ma…
This lacks recognition. So many factors could come into play. E.g. The downstream effects of house prices has to hit entrepreneurship. Previously a bunch of people would be in a good place to take a couple years off to start a business mid-career. Now people have these huge mortgages where your ability to start a business is hampered by your ability to get a financial buffer to take this year or 2 off. And lets not f…