Does anyone sell insurance covering earthquake related damage in Richmond? I mean, it doesn't seem viable unless the premiums are extraordinarily high. The very loose silt and sediment would result in liquidfaction and a sinking and settling of all foundations. Every structure would be destroyed essentially.

you mean something like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLZFl...layer_embedded

Yeah like that.

stay out of richmond, your back yard will sink and crack your foundation
true story :D

haha all the ditchmond jokes... either you'll sink into the ground or a plane will fall on your head :lol

Look at this graph. There's 4 peaks to notice, and the number of years after to reach the peak again:

1981 - 7 years
1989 - 3 years
1995 - 8 years
2007 - ??? years

How many years is only a guessing game, yet it'd be safe to say 3-8 years you can buy and house prices will be marginally the same with a few ups/downs.

http://activerain.com/image_store/up...6804076345.jpg

on a side note, most of RMD areas have a water table of 3 feet.

Dig a hole more than 3 feet and water comes out, true story.

Here's another graph showing major Canadian cities adjusted for inflation.
http://bp2.blogger.com/_PiR0viQSvUQ/...da_prices2.png

There's a few interesting points:
1. After the 1976 Olympics, housing crashed bigtime in Montreal
2. After the oil crash of the early 80s, it took > 20 years for Calgary prices to recover
3. After the 1981 peak of the Vancouver real estate market, it took 14 years to recover. The runup in 1979-81 is comparable to the surge from 2002-07.
4. After the 80s financial collapse, it took 15 years for Toronto prices to recover.

So why hasn't a housing meltdown happened again? 35 yr mortgages and still high commodity prices are keeping the worst at bay. Yet how many more buyers are there to take 35yr mortgages? How long can oil stay this high? when historically it should be about $40.

Insurance does not cover acts of god.

When it comes to fires/flooding/hurricanes it does.

but, but..

do they cover "I told you so"s?

:haha:

You can get earthquake coverage for sure...

Who is going to insure the insurance company when hundreds of buildings get destroyed in Richmond?

The low frequency seismic wave emitted from an earthquake far away will pose a great threat to buildings built on sediment while it won't do much to buildings built on bedrock.

Short answer: reinsurers.

Longer answer: Reinsurers. Your own earthquake insurance *probably* has a low policy limit--as in much lower than what your house is worth (read your policy for full details), and that protects both the insurance company and its reinsurers.

Canada Direct Insurance offeres Earthquake insurance...
you can pretty much insure every fucking things, even your wang.

but the deductible is ridiculously high, pretty much you won't get your money unless the earthquake destroy your house completely.

Good luck.

After spending 26 years of my life living in Richmond, I never want to live in that shithole again.

Two words: wealth transfer. I don't know if it's an ethnic thing, but some couples or 20-somethings get into the market because of help from their parents or relatives.

I'm going off on a tangent, but I don't think we will see oil in the $40/range for a long time. You might not subscribe to peak oil theory, but I think it's fairly believable. It's true we still have oil, but it comes from more expensive sources, like the tar sands. China and India still want cars for their citizens and the demand for oil is only going to increase.

Wealth transfer is great, yet its not going to be a long term solution as our aging population spends what used to be passed on via inheritance.

California still uses more gas than India, I'd be more worried about the US decreasing its oil/gas need than China/India increasing in the short term.

Oil is coming from more expensive sources (tar sands) cause its profitable to do so, otherwise there's lots of oil out there to tap, OPEC has to artificially limit it to keep prices high.

Just my $0.02