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Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

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Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#271

Post by MrApathy »

eigenvector wrote: post #192
smcl wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't answer that, but I can add that it is quite common in London too. I can see the allure of the "park my millions in property in the world financial capital" investment strategy, but I don't get the Vancouver version. That's not meant as a slight on Vancouver.

You can't buy a UK or US passport. You can buy a Canadian one. http://www.immigration.ca/en/immigration-wiki2/151-updates/7...

What about an EB-5 visa? Isn't that somewhat similar? This doesn't directly buy a US passport, but it does allow for citizenship within a few years (and then, by extension, an American passport).

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#272

Post by infinite8s »

zanny wrote: post #219
refurb wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Homesteading is giving unclaimed land new residents. What you're talking about is squatter's rights.

Except I'm not - there already exist squatters rights to occupy someones elses property and eventually claim it their own if they can avoid detection long enough. All that takes is the minimum effort to police the property you own to insure nobody is squatting. What I'm saying is that unconditionally whether or not someone is illegally occupying your property you only have a fixed amount of time to make use of it bef…

No developed country supports anything remotely like squatter's rights.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#273

Post by pc86 »

DannyBee wrote: post #255
curveship wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it discourage long-time owners from selling, thereby limiting supply and raising prices?

In theory, yes. In practice, if you own a currently 4+ million dollar home built in the 50's, you are paying at least 15-20k on it anyway. Here's an example currently for sale: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Altos-Hills/27446-Black-Mounta... They are paying 18.2k. If it was reassessed today, they'd be paying 40-45k. If they do what most people who have lived in a home forever do, and are downsizing to something smalle…

Even the current taxes are over 1.5x what my mortgage is (including not only escrow payments for taxes but also PMI). Nuts

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#274

Post by louprado »

gorkemyurt wrote: post #211

One of the main reasons of the housing crisis in the Bay Area is Prop 13 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(197... ) Prop 13 basically keeps the property taxes constant (or 1% increase) as the value of your house increases (doubles or triples). Your tax gets re-calculated only if you sell your house and the new owner starts paying potentially multiples of what the previous owner has been payin…

A Canadian who invests in single-family homes recently told me that the U.S. state of Indiana charges double real-estate taxes if the home is not owner-occupied. As a Californian who owns rental property in Arizona, I am all in favor of this, provided that means my primary residence would be taxed less.

Real-estate taxes on your primary residence is the equivalent of paying rent. It has become so high in some states (e.g. Oregon) that it discourages home ownership.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#275

Post by vfusion »

refurb wrote: post #199
badloginagain wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That requires the government to acknowledge there is a problem and come up with a clear strategy to solve the problem. The BC Provincial Government is working very hard to ignore it as a problem, where they won't even commission studies to generate data on how bad the problem is (or isn't). The federal government has also signaled their distancing from the Vancouver housing issue. Also, the real problem is foreign ow…

Also, the real problem is foreign ownership. What evidence is there that foreign ownership is a major problem? I've heard plenty of anecdotes, but no actual data. I do know that Vancouver real estate agents are milking the "yellow peril" for all it's worth. "Buy now before China owns all of Vancouver!". Suffice to say, Canadians are doing what American's did in the early 2000's. They are going into a crazy amount of…

I heard from a real estate agent in Vancouver that 52% of real estate is owned by foreign investors, mainly buyers from Hong Kong.

They leave the buildings empty. One building was flooded because the fire sprinklers went off and there was no one living there to spot and report the problem.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#276

Post by john_fushi »

hobolord wrote: post #157
rumiarabi wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably second to only SF in North America for the game industry, SFX for the film industry is also big here.

what site(s) should I be using to look for jobs in Montreal in software? My background is in mechatronics but a ton of the embedded engineering jobs I've seen require some French language skills.

If you are not interested in learning French you'll have a hard time finding a job in Montreal.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#277

Post by [deleted] »

hobolord wrote: post #157
rumiarabi wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably second to only SF in North America for the game industry, SFX for the film industry is also big here.

what site(s) should I be using to look for jobs in Montreal in software? My background is in mechatronics but a ton of the embedded engineering jobs I've seen require some French language skills.

[deleted]

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#278

Post by rb808 »

gorkemyurt wrote: post #240
rb808 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most countries dont have such high property taxes that the USA does. In London I paid $2500 a year in council tax and thought that was a lot of money, even though that was about 0.25%. Meanwhile NYC suburbs I'm now paying that every two months.

But I am sure you paid more in income taxes in London. Which policy do you prefer? In my opinion taxing wealth is always a better idea than taxing income..

Maybe sales tax (VAT) is higher, but overall its about the same - except in the UK I get free healthcare.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#279

Post by vkou »

rconti wrote: post #223
sandworm101 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US, even Seattle, can be a culture shock for many Canadians. It is a very different country. I know of several people who have fled the US after only a couple years. It generally boils down to race, religion and guns, all of which are radically different on either side of the boarder. It's not that one is better than the other, but that a person raised in one environment can be taken aback by the immediacy of the…

There's virtually no religion or guns in Seattle. And I'm not sure what race you're talking about, but I can only guess Asian (since Canadian isn't a race!) and even growing up in the 80s half my friends were Asian. We're not talking about Oklahoma here.

There's a bit more religion. I haven't been able to walk through Seattle downtown without some angry person with a sign and a megaphone threatening infidels with hellfire, unless they repent, and accept the Lord as their saviour.

Other then that, it's not too bad.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#280

Post by infinite8s »

logfromblammo wrote: post #112
goldbrick wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have things upside down. Property rights only exist because of law. Also, when did property rights become vital to democracy?

It became vital back when economies first started to specialize. If you take the net the fisherman wants to use and string it up as a hammock, you're going to eat fewer fish later. If you take the blacksmith's tongs and use them to crack walnuts, you're not going to get that handful of nails that you wanted to build your house. Property rights alleviate the tragedy of the commons, by taking resources with multiple po…

In this case democracy and capitalism are at odds.
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