81–90 of 112 posts
I want to point out that Vancouver’s municipal election is today (I’m standing in line for it), and many of the candidates are running on platforms related to the housing crisis. Whatever you think of the issue, this particular article isn’t “about” the issue so much as it is a precisely-timed propaganda piece aimed at influencing the election.
This is a garbage article when compared with the headline. The “experts” is two property managers who don’t even agree on what’s happening or why. The 20% figure comes from a quote that sounds like an off-the-too-of-my-head assessment from one of them: ”What we’re seeing is that rental rates have decreased up to 20 per cent from the spring of 2017, and it’s getting even worse.” They also say they’ve never seen anythi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Building more doesn't work. Some areas in Toronto have 30% empty dwellings. There are much more money available to speculate than available surface area. Leverage was cheap (through housing) so everyone played that asset class on margin here. Now that the interest rates are going up, it will sort itself out.
Cities need to fund themselves through real estate rather than income taxes. Tax “the person who could live in a place” rather than “the person who does live in a place”. For actual residents, it’s a wash, but it severely penalizes the investment crowd.
In my city in Australia it’s common to see a single elderly retiree living in a rundown home on a large block, where the land alone could be worth close to a million dollars. When the property is sold it can often be split into two, and house two families in detached homes.
It feels cold hearted to say elderly should be pushed out of homes they have lived in for 50 years. But it does make it harder for cities to grow - the carrot of higher prices doesn’t seem to work for people who just want to live out their days in the community and home they know.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
These houses weren’t purchased to rent out. They were safe deposit boxes for cash. The expectations were that they would just keep going up in value. Their rent value didn’t matter.
Could be both. The house where I rent is owned by a woman in China who phoned up a local real estate management company, bought the first 20 houses on their list, and wired them the money. It's probably more complicated than that, but that's the short form story the management company told me. The company also said it's very common.
If this article is remotely true and this is the start of a trend set off by having no rules whatsoever and then suddenly a whole bunch of not terribly well thought out rules, it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out, especially when good old "fear is stronger than greed" investor psychology kicks in, all in an environment of steadily increasing interest rates.
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Speculation tax hasn't even been implemented yet. We're seeing a 20% drop due a basket of measures such as CoV empty homes tax, airbnb regulations, provincial increased school tax on homes over $5M and a fear of the upcoming speculation tax.
Don’t forget the “stress test” required to get a mortgage since last year. New buyer now have to qualify for a mortgage at the Bank of Canada rate plus 2%, which is close to to 6% now. Even though mortgages can be had for a little over 4%. That shutdown a lot of buyers very quickly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cities need to fund themselves through real estate rather than income taxes. Tax “the person who could live in a place” rather than “the person who does live in a place”. For actual residents, it’s a wash, but it severely penalizes the investment crowd.
It also severlely penalizes the elderly and retired, who don’t earn but certainly still vote. In my city in Australia it’s common to see a single elderly retiree living in a rundown home on a large block, where the land alone could be worth close to a million dollars. When the property is sold it can often be split into two, and house two families in detached homes. It feels cold hearted to say elderly should be push…
The same sized property next door has a full sized home and three townhomes. So potentially one person living in the same space that is housing a dozen next door.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don’t forget the “stress test” required to get a mortgage since last year. New buyer now have to qualify for a mortgage at the Bank of Canada rate plus 2%, which is close to to 6% now. Even though mortgages can be had for a little over 4%. That shutdown a lot of buyers very quickly.
I am sure I am missing some nuance since this is the first I have heard of this but, on first blush, that seems like a great idea.
Basically the number of uninsured mortgages had been climbing rapidly, so this instituted so that even with a fall in housing prices, loans are less likely to default.
Good I think from a banking risk mentality, but not so good for homeowners looking to buy.
I remember reading that a couple making $100k and 20% down could have bought an $850k home before the stress test. Now it’s my more like $650k.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cities need to fund themselves through real estate rather than income taxes. Tax “the person who could live in a place” rather than “the person who does live in a place”. For actual residents, it’s a wash, but it severely penalizes the investment crowd.
It also severlely penalizes the elderly and retired, who don’t earn but certainly still vote. In my city in Australia it’s common to see a single elderly retiree living in a rundown home on a large block, where the land alone could be worth close to a million dollars. When the property is sold it can often be split into two, and house two families in detached homes. It feels cold hearted to say elderly should be push…
More or less cold hearted than forcing three new dads to spend 15% of their waking hours getting back and forth to work, which means they only sees their kids when they are sleeping?
Are there prior examples of usage wherein one may 'plunge' in an upwards direction? Idiomatically, the word is most frequently used to describe (a) rapid motion into water and/or (b) rapid motion downwards. Personally, and perhaps consequentially, I have only ever encountered the term with respect to 'into' and 'downwards'. However, if the etymology of the word is consistent with a more general usage, I would be plea…
Slowdown of detached home sales, speculation-tax avoidance, Airbnb rules bring flood of high-end houses onto rental market, creating “desperation” as owners slash rents