To me this is nothing more than typical real estate hype.

You can't take one instance and try to play it up like a trend... unless of course youre the media who has a vested intrest in maintaining healthy relationships with their advertising customers. (Main customers being real estate companys.)

I already asked this question.

Some American cities had similar experiences as Vancouver with rich Asians buying property... so when prices dropped it would make sense that they continue buying up entire cities. Yet that has not seemed to happen.

Forgive my stereotype, yet I've heard lots of jokes of Asian families keeping their couches wrapped in plastic. I know that's not universally true, yet it does say something about how Asian culture tries to retain the value of what they own. Do you think the same people who keep their couch wrapped in plastic will want to buy a house decreasing in value?

They are.

they are buying condos by the building for rental purposes.

They are, just finished picking up a couple houses in vegas :woot2:

Haha, so true. My television still have the pastic wrap. It's been almost 2 years.
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People who think this is a real estate bubble are idiots.

Local people earning 100-200k are NOT the buyers who pay cash/no mortgage on multi million dollar homes -- they are all offshore China people.

And China is exponentially getting richer -- do you think this flood of people is going to plateau?

^

That's the general idea but there are certain groups of people who insist that there will be a big burst like in 1981, 1989 and 1995. Trouble is, if the bulk of these buyers are local investors then yes it will drop sooner or later, heck, bubble would have burst long ago.

So long as there is a steady flow of cash rich migrants/investors prices will continue to rise. Unless there is a sudden rule change to foreign/investment purchases or Vancouver just becomes a shithole and is not a desirable place to live in anymore there is no reason why the bubble will burst where there is so much demand.

er...you are sadly mistaken. Most of these millionaires and business men back in China and they got where they are thru hard work and dilligence...please enlighten me how you can have a fortune by tax evasion?? to evade tax you gotta have the money to begin with.

maybe because people are born curious to know what outside forces are causing them to be in a social trap?

no tax = additional 20-30% profit.

No invoice, no tax, and I am going to stop at that before going into more detailed description

yeah...you talk like white people don't evade tax..get over it

wouwou is asian :failed:

Yeah anyone who think this is a real estate bubble must be stupid...

2007 would suggest the market here is a bit.. fragile?
http://www.google.ca/url?source=imgr...99rnnkl6IQ_XEQ

Up to date graph...
http://www.google.ca/url?source=imgr...TXjuroJ-9venSQ


Nothing "bubbly" about those graphs...

I thought this was cute,

http://www.greaterfool.ca/wp-content...11/01/CREA.jpg

I think I'll stick with people like Robert Shiller (Guy who predicted dot.com crash and US real estate crash.. who is also predicting the same for Canada) and Garth Turner (greaterfool.com) when seeking advice in Real estate... Not Global News.

There is a reason that 0/40, and now 5/35 mortgages have been done away with, cause people are over leveraged against an over-valued asset (Housing). The Govt. has recognized this and is finally doing somehting to quell the record debt-to-income ratios in Canada which are actually worse than our American cousins. Sad thing is, it's more difficult for a price correction to occur in Canada due to CMHC insurance, which basiclly prevents the bank form having a care in the world with who they lend money too. With VRM's getting more expensive as rates creep up, tighter lending standards, and an excessive supply of housing in most parts of Canada... you can expect prices to go down.

If you want to get techinical, RE is already down in the lower mainland and most of Canada, just instead of telling you about the drop in sales during 2010, they tell you the average price of a sale has increased... and it has because the only property's selling right now are on the higher end of the price spectrum, first time buyers are either no longer interested in buying RE, or can no longer get financing.

Have a look at yearly sales 2009 vs 2010, and look at the forecast from BCREA for 2011 lol Surprise they expect RE to jump right back up so NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY!!! (Oh wait according to them "now is always the time to buy")

http://www.google.ca/url?source=imgr...v-E0EROoe0MljQ

I'm sure there is people that disagree with me, any home owner in the lower mainland doesn't like hearing that they are looking at losing the equity they have in their homes. But don't sit there and say how RE is going crazy $$$ and the idea of a housing bubble in Canada is idiotic... because there is a lot of information/data which would point to us potentially seeing a RE price melt over the next decade.

If you're gonna hate, at least come back with something to support your agruement thanks :)

what he said :fullofwin:
they do, but they get caught, there is a reason why no body fucks with CRA.

On the other hand, I am currently working in DG, China right now, and I have picked up QUITE A BIT of TE techs involving currencies and VATs :spamarama:

your post is kinda confusing....you first suggest no bubble, then you argue prices must go down...?

anyway...these sort of technical view is just too subjective....I've seen sooooo many ppl argued that there was a housing bubble since back in 2005/6, by pointing at those same graph trend and comparing the house prices and affordabliltiy with historical data and with other provinces...

then maybe CRA should start cracking down on those criminals who drives an $100K car and live in a million dollar mansion, yet don't report a dollar in earning...

You're in DG right now? Meet up in Chang Ping next weekend? :fullofwin:

why the hell would I do that?

their services "sucks" :fullofwin::fullofwin:

it's almost impossible for CRA to do that without the help of the Chinese authorities as well as the banking, and tax department to get the full picture on someone's financial status.

and that's not happening, not at a reasonable cost and within a reasonable time frame anyways.

Lmao I've known that guy since I was a kid because my dad is in real estate haven't really seen him in a while though. He's always had hair like that even 10-15 years ago.

is it just me or is it pretty pointless to go on a helicopter ride when google earth/streetview is so easily accesible?

after that whole tirade, you fail to recognize that one has to live somewhere. we can't all live in mom's basement until we're 50 years old. consider the costs of long term renting, and you see that if you're not taking an active stance on your investments, you'll end up old, with few assets, and no firm housing established.

i've seen this with our older generation. guys who have been renting for 35 years, and now are coming up to 60 years old. They all recognize that they should have bought years ago.

The comment about no bubble was a satire, and yes I think there is a bubble and it's bound to pop... thought it wont burst like the USA, it will be a slow grind.

Again, my 0.02$

The only people that win when housing balloons is developers, realtors, and mortgage brokers/bankers...so no sane person outside of those industries should want housing to skyrocket.

In the long run, yes, supply and demand would basically force the increase in prices.

But there is a big difference between buying this year at 600k, and in 3 years at 450k.

PS: I'm a renter, the money I "haven't" spent on a down payment is collecting me an average of about 7% return (Safely), for a similar place to mine with a conventional downpayment/traditional mortgage rates/condo fee's and maintenance I would be spending about an extra 1k/month to own assuming nothing serious goes wrong.

So lets say over three years, if I wanted to sell... between the sad sum that pays down the principle, what the realtor takes, what I have lost to cmhc, what I have spent on maintenance and condo fee's, etc, I would have to sell for the same price i paid JUST TO BREAK EVEN, not a cent more financially ahead.

Where as renting during this time, I saved 50k down, and an additional 1k/month for a total of 36 months (36k)... plus the 7% I made off my 50k year over year and the additonal funds I could add that I saved from the costs of ownership every month getting a similar return.

So after 3 years of home ownership I make nothing, unless housing goes up, and if it goes down I lose money.

Versus my actual situation where over three years I can expect my 50k down to turn into 50k down, 36k saved in monthly costs, and 7% return which at the end of the day would probably work out to something along the lines of an additional 15k made off very safe investments... putting me at 101k...

Housing for some people might be a better way to spend money, but for me it makes more sense to rent. Plus I dont know where my career will take me, so I could be forced into the position of selling... potentially at a loss... real estate is among the most illiquid of all financial assets.. and I don't like that.

But if you don't view your home as an "investment" then none of this matters.

Had to type this quick, sorry if it's kinda fucked up.. point is you are not "throwin away money when you rent".. if you do it the right way.

You obviously have never heard of the phrase: A penny saved is a penny earned.

This advice all depends on where you live, and how you live.

Japan has suffered 20 years of housing declines. Renters would have been far better off than owners stuck paying mortgages worth more than the property, with negative gains.

Germany rents, < 50% own, and they are one of the economic powerhouses. Houses have been flat with inflation for 15+ years cause there are rules against speculation.

I have a couple older friends that have rented their entire lives and are very well off. Its because renting allows them to be mobile and take jobs that pay very well, also to move and escape areas when there are downturns - unlike home owners who are anchored to their location.

There's studies that show if you buy/sell more than a couple times you're actually not doing much better by owning, since so much is lose in the transactions. Considering the average Vancouverite wants to start in a small condo, then move to a home, then have to sell the home for retirement, likely they will move enough times to make owning technically unprofitable - I say technically cause most people will not track the entire history of expenses, only the final profit.

So while I know your comment has been true of the last several decades in Canada, you nor I cannot predict the future. Housing may follow Japan and trap people in wealth traps. Housing my follow Germany and provide no gains if further measures to curb speculation are implemented. Who knows!

I will say that in the short term it does not look good, the deck is stacked against ownership. Renting is cheaper than buying right now, so while older people may regret not buying decades ago, younger people may profit from not buying today and waiting a decade.