(Un)Real Estate Speculations
Watch this enjoyable dig on Vancouver from the Rick Mercer Show (found on Van-City Slumlords blog).
There is some compelling local reading on blogs dedicated to Vancouver’s insane real estate market. In spite of the fact they are written anonymously, I occasionally enjoy reading sites like Vancouver (Un)Real Estate and CondoHype. Unlike some anonymous bloggers who use the cloak of anonymity for cheap shots and innuendo, these sites provide some much needed perspective of Vancouver real estate marketing. And while the writing can be incredulous and bitchy at times, the subject matter justifies it.
Today the Vancouver Sun’s Miro Cernetig asked, who can afford to live here now? His commentary was flip, not unlike the bloggers. For $1.25M you get a basement suite peek-a-boo glimpse of the water in Kits, he reports. For a mainstream publication like the Sun (complete with its advertorial Homes section) to be discussing the ludicrousness of Vancouver’s speculative housing market, things must be getting bad.
Though average home prices have doubled here in just over four years, we’re hardly alone in our attempts to speculate on real estate prices. Buyers in the UK for example, are scrambling to find owners for depreciating properties, and eating big losses.
Even the usually upbeat real estate promoter Ozzy Jurock admits to the potential for a ‘little bit of a hiccup’ in Vancouver’s home prices.
Whether its a hiccup or a massive attack of flatulence, either way the tipping point must be coming for Vancouver’s real estate prices. We’re eventually going to run out of suckers buyers with enough credit to afford Vancouver’s so-called world class urban living.
UPDATE: Financial Post reports that property speculation is key reason for inflated real estate prices.
Jonathon Narvey
November 11, 2007 @ 4:15 pm
Nice roundup of the real estate madness situation. I’ve blogged about this in the past in a similar vein. I grew up in the real-estate limbo of Winnipeg and still can’t get my head around the prices here.
I was one of the “suckers” who bought in about eighteen months ago. I only hope there are still a few out there when I get around to selling. A hiccup, I can take; eating big losses could be a bit too much for a guy who struggles to save 10 per cent of his less-than CEO-sized earnings every month.
condohype
November 26, 2007 @ 1:22 am
Michael, your praise could be my new tagline: “Incredulous, bitchy, justified.”
Thanks for the link and glad you enjoy the site.