Leaky Condo's in Vancouver BC

Got a leaky condo in the Lower Mainland? You're not alone. The Coalition of Leaky Condo Owners (COLCO) has a website with resources and info at myleakycondo.com

It looks like they've even got a database of leaky condo buildings in Vancouver, but the information is currently offline.

If you're an entrepreneur, you may want to consider one of these buildings for a mushroom farming venture.

Varsity condo project cancelled, deposits returned

The Varsity theater in Point Grey village was set to be knocked down to make way for condos. Apparently the land was too valuable to waste on a single screen neighborhood theater.

Unfortunately it looks like now construction costs have made the land too valuable for the condo's that were to be built in the Varsity theaters place. Deposits for Varsity condo's have been returned citing "The unprecedented rise in construction costs" in Vancouver.

So what will go it its place? We'll have to wait and see.

CMHC will insure 'interest only' mortgages.

Worried about the RE market in vancouver slowing before you can sell your most recent leaky condo flip?

Looks like you can breath a sigh of relief.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. has just announced that they will offer mortgage insurance to interest only loans. This means that new buyers can stretch even further in hopes the market will continue to rise at a meteoric rate. Interest only loans enable the purchaser to pay only the interest on the loan for up to 10 years. This means you can buy and sell property without even touching any of the principal, just pay the rent on the money!

Monthly payments are therefore lower to begin with, giving buyers a way into high-priced markets, but rise as principal is added -- even more so if interest rates also rise.

Interest-only loans have been all the rage in the United States in recent years, amounting to up to 20% of all originations and up to 50% in some of the hottest U.S. cities. Mr. Tal said the last time they were so popular in the United States was in 1929.

"In the past, they were given to the selected few, people who say paying principal is for losers and what I want to do is save the money and invest it more productively in the stock market," Mr. Tal said. Today, in the United States interest-only loans are more widely available, even for sub-prime, high-risk borrowers.

"So if in the past the motivation was to invest the money more productively, today the motivation is to afford the unaffordable," Mr. Tal said.

That oughta squeeze a bit more out of this market! Article in the National Post.

Condos, crime and calling it quits.

Are you bored of sifting though the MLS looking for condo bargains to flip? Do you ever wish the condo market in Vancouver was a bit more like a television court-room drama with charismatic con-men and lavish life styles? Anyone who thinks that the real-estate market in the lower mainland is lacking in excitement or colourful characters ought to check out this article in todays Vancouver Sun.

A partnership between two men with checkered business backgrounds who are developing several high-profile condo projects in downtown Vancouver, Surrey and Richmond has dissolved in acrimony and litigation.

One of the partners, George Dengin, has sued the other, Mark Chandler, in B.C. Supreme Court for allegedly misrepresenting the status of the projects and failing to account for the sale of dozens of units.

Dengin's lawsuit is supported by an affidavit filed by Vancouver real estate marketing whiz Bob Rennie, who introduced Dengin to Chandler in 2003 and was subsequently hired by the partnership to sell the projects.

The Partnership of Dengin & Chandler was responsible for the following properties:

• Hamlin Mews, a 21-unit townhouse project at 37th and Oak;
• Tribeca, a 52-unit condo project at Richards and Nelson;
• H+H, a 22-story condo tower at Homer and Helmcken;
• Anndale, a shopping centre on a 16-acre property in Surrey;
• Richards Street, various lots including the present site of Richards on Richards nightclub;
• Eldorado, the present site of the Eldorado Hotel on Kingsway;
• Garden City, two mixed-use towers in Richmond.

Incidentally Bob Rennie is supporting the partner that had his stockbroker license revoked for serious trading infractions in 1987, NOT the partner that was indicted in Arizona on 13 charges of fraud, theft and forgery in 2000.

The importance of "balls" in the Vancouver RE Market.

OK, so you look around and start to see 'warning signs' about the Vancouver Real Estate Market.. You know, things like interest rates going up or the fact that purchasing prices are up to three times the rental value of some condos, townhouses and apartments in Vancouver... And you start to worry riiiight? You start to think "but what if Vancouver realestate isn't worth what its selling for right now?" or "what if the market is dangerously overheated and could be knocked down in a 'market correction' that could see my home value drop by thousands of dollars?"

You're looking at home values dropping in some places in the states and warning signs that the US is headed into a recession and you're worried that we might follow suit?

eh. easy come easy go I say.

But if you're really freaked out and you want some sort of advice or encouragement?

I say balls to you.

Seriously. Get some balls, they will help you through any troubled times the may or may not lay ahead. You know those little stress balls? One for each hand, no problem - get a little worried just squeeze those fears away.

What happens if the bubble pops?

Over on the Vancouver Housing Market Blog there's an interesting historical discussion of 1981. That was the year when real estate prices in Vancouver fell by about 50% after a fast strong run up in prices. There were a few factors that caused that crash, but 'this time its different'. As long as we keep bidding up the price of Condos in Vancouver we'll all be fine.

But just for the sake of argument, lets say the real estate market in vancouver crashes in the next year or two.. what would that mean? Well for one thing houses and condos would be worth a lot less. This could be depressing to current owners, but not the end of the world. If you can afford your bills you stay put right? Eventually prices will go back up, you'll just be paying some premium rent on the money you used to buy your place. As long as you don't have to move you don't have to worry about the fact that you cant sell your place.

If things get really bad? Well, I guess in the worst case scenario that would be unemployment and foreclosure right? Buy why get all negative? Even in that gloomy scene you can look at the bright side. Its all a matter of perspective - Vancouver has one of the mildest climates in Canada, people come all the way from Quebec to live on our streets. We have lots of prime real-estate in parks and tarps are cheap! So lets stay positive! I'm off to view this 500 sq. foot condo on east side right now - the MLS listing says I can "just paint and profit!".

Olympic Cost Overruns

Among the many good things that the 2010 Olympics are bringing to Vancouver it looks like we'll soon be able to add $55 million more from the Federal Government. Lets Party!

Miraculously the olympics are "on budget and on schedule" despite cost overruns.

Fame, Fortune and Forclosures in the U.S.A.

Things aren't looking so good in the US housing market. Sales are down, prices seem to have peaked and are starting to drop in some places. And as we've seen in the past some people don't react to turmoil in real estate values too well.

Just how bad has it gotten? Apparently the rich and famous can no longer afford to live in Wisconsin.

More than a bell is needed to save Dustin Diamond this time around. Diamond, best known as geeky Screech Powers on the 1989-1993 teen comedy series "Saved by the Bell," is selling T-shirts with his photo on them to try to raise $250,000 so he doesn't lose his gray two-story house under a foreclosure order.

For the whole story you can visit Diamonds website at http://www.getdshirts.com/.

Basements Suites Galore in Fairview!

Wow! This weekend between Cambie and Broadway on 6th ave I must have seen signs for at least 15 open houses going on. A suprising number of these are ground level condos, sometimes called 'garden suites' or 'basement suites', and most starting around 350k.

Now some people might look at this and see an overheated housing market getting dangerously close to meltdown via saturation but I say tish-tosh! What we have here is an OPPOURTUNITY!

Look at it this way: The majority of people that live in basement suites are renters. Most home-owners choose not to live in the basement for whatever reason, but many many renters do. Therefore we can assume that there is GREAT DEMAND for basement suites among renters out there, but only a finite supply. See where I'm going with this?

The thing about basements is that there needs to be land to put them into, and they aren't making anymore land! Sure they can stack condo on top of condo and get more floorspace, but they cant make more groundfloor units than the total surface of the ground that exists. Therefore groundfloor units are CLEARLY in more DEMAND than upperfloor units, particularly among renters.

And renters are going to pay our mortgage and get us rich arent they?

Some people might think that renters wont be willing to pay the $3000 per month that will make us rich off of these 600 sq foot basement suites, but you've got to THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE! Demand steadily increases while supply dwindles, and the one TRULY LIMITED supply is in basement suites!

BUY NOW! GET RICH LATER!

little tiny houses for you and me..

With less and less space around I guess we've got to figure out ways to live in smaller and smaller places. This ingenious design uses a rotating corner section of one large room to compact four rooms into one.

..So basically you've got your living room but with a turn of the corner cylinder you've got a kitchen. To bathe you rotate the cylinder to the 'bathroom' section and then when you're ready to head to bed you rotate the cylinder to the 'bedroom' section. It's like a futuristic version of the Murphy Bed!

Stretching The Loon - tips for first time buyers.

So you've got your eye on a little condo - you're thinking its time to get your own four walls, or at least one wall to yourself and three shared walls. But then there's the prices and the way they've been running up up up for the last three years. Wouldn't you like to get a piece of that action? So how DO you get in to this market as a first-time buyer?

Well, you're going to need money.

A lot of money.

Luckily for you, there's no shortage of money out there. Where's all this money I speak of? The Banks! And they'll gladly give you a whole bunch of it to you as long as you promise to pay it back over the next 25 years.. or 30 years.. well heck, lets go 40 years, imagine what a condo in vancouver central will be worth in forty years! Billions!!

Also, as you can understand they have to cover the risk of you absconding into the night with your condo, so they'll charge you a small interest fee to cover that risk and make it worth their while.

So lets say you borrow $300,000 to buy a nice little condo, what do you have to pay back based on a 5% interest rate?.. Over 25 years you'd pay a little over $1750.00 a month to rent that money from the bank adding up to a smidgeon over $250,000 in interest to be payed back on top of the original $300k.

But what if $1750 is a bit much for you to pay monthly? Maybe you're paying $900 monthly to rent that same condo now and you're not convinced its worth the extra cost. Never Fear! The banks will work with you. If you opt for a 40 year mortgage you will save tremendously, bringing your monthly cost down to under $1450 with a total interest payment of just under $400,000. This means that as long as you dont have to pay any extra 'hidden' fees like property taxes, strata fees, maintenance, heating & electricity, etc, and as long as interest rates never go above %5 that $300,000 condo will cost you a total of only $700,000 over the next 40 years. Thats not much to pay for a condo that will be worth BILLIONS now is it?

the 'affordability' myth in vancouver.

I hear a lot of people in vancouver complaining about the 'affordability' factor of the real estate here. Mostly it's people whining about the usual suspects: "boo hoo, I want a place that is liveable" or "I want a place that is not comprised mainly of mold" well you know what? You're coming at this thing all wrong-headed, and I'll tell you why.

Most of you are looking at what you can afford to rent vs. what you can afford to buy and thinking "..wait a minute.. I can live in a nice house in a nice area, or for the same monthly cost I can buy a tiny box in an 'undesireable' part of town. Uh.. I'll take the nice house."

..But what about THE FUTURE?!?

It's not what you spend today, but what you bid to spend to live here in the future. Basically you're betting against others to determine the highest you're willing to spend on monthly housing to have a part of this city, and WHAT A CITY IT IS! I mean what other city has any connection at all to a two week sporting event of OLYMPIC CALIBRE? Right?!? Therefore, we rightly believe that the DEMAND to live in this city will outstrip the current SUPPLY. After all, they're not making any more LAND are they? No. They're making more CONDOS, because THATS where the DEMAND is.

So we're betting on how much we're going to want to live here in the FUTURE and we're thinking, hey.. It pretty much gets more expensive to live every year, because I need a flatscreen TV and flatscreen TV's are more expensive than that hand-me-down oak cabinet floor-standing model I got from uncle Vic.. So if it gets more expensive to live, and I bid somewhere in the middle of what I'll pay for the cost of living over the next 30 years it'll be a great investment because housing prices NEVER GO DOWN and interest rates are great and thanks to inflation I'll pretty much make more and more money each year to cover this purchase and every thing will be GREAT!!

But then you start looking at charts.. Those fucking charts that narrow down on one disturbing little factoid to the exclusion of all other things.. Little things like the median income in Vancouver has actually DROPPED between 2000 and 2004 and we simply don't have the jobs to support a market of million-dollar condo's right now and you think "shit. I'm going to lose my shirt. Someone's going to go and pull the whole tablecloth out from underneath this house of cards and the whole free lunch is gonna dissappear in a cloud of pepper and tears."

But here's what I say to that:

Charts are the past man! Why focus on the past when you can look to THE FUTURE! You can't always judge something by it historical patterns.

I mean really, just look at tech stock prices during the dot.com boom - They went up and up and then suddenly *zap* they dissappeared in a moment of mass-panic as everyone realized they were horribly over-valued. Just goes to show - you can't trust the charts man, and if you don't buy that tiny box you can barely afford NOW are you ever going to have a place of your own to hang your flatscreen TV?

Whats wrong with bubbles anyhow?

What with Vancouver's real estate market being so hot lately, there's been a lot of talk about real estate 'bubbles' online and in the news.. even some of the banks have come out with statements warning of 'bubble like activity' in the vancouver market. Everybody seems to use the term bubble in a negative sense, but really, what's wrong with bubbles?

Who doesn't love to see a delicate bubble gliding through the air on a summer afternoon as you sip lemonade on your 15 sq ft. deck? Bubbles are fun! Bubbles are beautiful! Embrace the bubbles! love the bubbles! ..but not too hard or they may pop. Which I guess is why people speak of them negatively.

Yes, its true, some bubbles pop - but what about those that don't? What about the bubbles that float through the air going up and up and up until you cant afford them anymore? What about those sort of bubbles?

Lets stop picking on bubbles, after all picking on bubbles is exactly the sort of activity bound to make them pop. Let's enjoy the beautiful aspects of bubbles and tish-tosh to the nay-sayers.

Up with bubbles!

Negativity not helpful

Check out this article on Forbes. Negative, negative, negative. It just goes to show that the mainstream media doesn't get it and are always looking for the negative story. I suspect that they are beholden to the interests of wealthy renters who have a vested interest in seeing property values drop.

Ok, so there seems to be a bit of a dip in US real estate values - that doesnt mean that the party's over! No sir! If we can all remain positive and focused we'll continue to see a constant and solid rise in Vancouver real estate values because VANCOUVER IS DIFFERENT. I mean really, who wants to live in California anyways? Vancouver has sunshine, beaches & beautiful outlying areas to visit: Surrey, Burnaby and Port Coquitlam just to name a few. We also have low taxes and lots of good paying jobs in construction building houses.

So lets keep those people employed! Lets focus on the positive and keep pushing property values up. Negativity is of no help to anyone.

think like a MILLIONAIRE!

Would you like an investment that DOUBLES YOUR MONEY every year to infinity? Would you like to become RICHER and RICHER without any effort while everyone around you scrapes and saves every last penny? Would you like to enjoy 4 meals a day at fancy restaraunts where the waitstaff is envious and frightened of your economic might?

Of course you would! Who wouldn't?

So go where the smart money goes: VANCOUVER REAL ESTATE! Its the investment that can never go wrong. Just look at this graph:


graph taken from the vancouver housing market blog)

Over the last two years real-estate prices in vancouver have risen dramatically.. What happens when we extrapolate these increases into the future? LIMITLESS RICHES! You can still purchase a 600 sq ft condo in Vancouver with a pleasant alley view and minor water ingress issues for under $400k. In just four years that same condo will be worth over THREE MILLION DOLLARS!

And the best thing about a real-estate investment is that it can make you money while it gains value! With a healthy downpayment you’ll pay just under $2000 per month for that condo, and you can rent it out for up to $800 per month. That might seem like a money-losing proposition at first glance, but you’ve got to THINK LIKE A MILLIONAIRE. How do you make money when you’re subsidizing your renters by $1200 a month? VOLUME! Rent that condo out four times over and you’re pulling in an easy TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH!!

Get in now before it’s too late!

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