Originally Posted by Gridlock (Post 7779633)

Even though house prices are high in Vancouver, I think we need them to be. You drop prices to allow new buyers in, which is great, but you fuck over current owners-owners that have re-financed and god knows what to the actual equity of their home. That is what caused the problem in the US! In Vancouver, people are buying at the limit of their finances and you drop the prices by 20% and watch the problems start.

Originally Posted by taylor192 (Post 7779677)

I appreciate you're underwater and that sucks, yet the market dropping doesn't screw those who bought at the high mark, they screwed themselves.

People shouldn't buy at the limit of their finances, and I wish the Cons would drop the mortgage criteria back to sensible levels. The 30/35/40yr mortgage is one thing, yet the 32% GDS and 40% TDS being raised to unlimited GDS and 46% TDS (with good credit) is silly. Before I was limited to a mortgage that was 32% of my income (GDS), yet now with an unlimited GDS I'm only limited by TDS. With good credit and no debts, in theory I can spend half my income on a mortgage.

That is wrong, and that is why many FTBs are getting themselves in too deep.

Originally Posted by Gridlock (Post 7779718)

People just happened to believe that housing will always go up.

Originally Posted by Gridlock (Post 7779718)

Unfortunately, whether they screwed themselves, or got screwed by outside events of the market, they are equally screwed, and start taking out others with them. We've seen what happens in the states. It doesn't take long for a screwed home owner to not buy a new car, or a un-needed construction worker to be on EI not needing the financial services of a mortgage broker on through the ranks until it sorts itself out.

Originally Posted by xclone2002 (Post 7778738)

To those of you pissed at the Chinese jacking up your real estate prices, ask yourself, “Why didn’t you work towards a down payment and invest?”

Why am I not pissed that prices are going up? Because I worked my ass off, paid for a down payment on a Yaletown apartment before the building was finished and now the rent I collect pays for the mortgage, with more left over every month.

Oh, and thanks to the Chinese, the value of my proper increased about 30% from the time purchased it.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Originally Posted by BlackZRoadster (Post 7779797)

The only thing i hate about my property increasing in value is property tax.

I'm still living in it, so i dont care if it goes up by 15-20% in value. I still need a place to live and i pay more taxes b/c of it.

Originally Posted by azndude69 (Post 7779868)

This is a huge misconception, your property value increasing doesn't necessarily correlate to you paying more property taxes.

I'll give you an example.

If the city's budget stays the same from the previous year, and EVERYBODY's property values go up 30%, does that mean everybody will be paying 30% more property tax? . . . .NO! and vice versa if everybodies property values go down 30% does not translate to everybody paying 30% less property taxes.
People will be paying the same level of taxes.

However in reality the budget increases 1-3% a year, and some peoples property value go up more than others, while others may go down.

So the GENERAL rule is: if your property values go up more than average, you pay more tax, and if your property value increases less than the average, you pay less taxes year over year.

Originally Posted by BlackZRoadster (Post 7779939)

Thats not the case, my property tax goes up every year based on the rising property value.

Originally Posted by parm104 (Post 7779808)

.., and anyone that claims they would act differently in the situation if they had money, is simply in denial.

Originally Posted by Pochacho (Post 7779988)

because:
1. either ur property is out-increasing other properties in the area, or
2. the city needs more money for the budget

Originally Posted by Redlines_Daily (Post 7780122)

Speak for yourself, but don't make false statements to justify your way of thinking. I know many people who are not wealthy, yet dedicate their lives to helping others. Likewise, I have met quite a few multi-millionaires that live in modest houses and drives ordinary cars because they choose to live that way..they spend their money helping other people instead of collecting material things. You are in denial in thinking that everyone is like you.

Originally Posted by Redlines_Daily (Post 7780122)

Speak for yourself, but don't make false statements to justify your way of thinking. I know many people who are not wealthy, yet dedicate their lives to helping others. Likewise, I have met quite a few multi-millionaires that live in modest houses and drives ordinary cars because they choose to live that way..they spend their money helping other people instead of collecting material things. You are in denial in thinking that everyone is like you.

Originally Posted by SpuGen (Post 7779375)

Not exactly.
A bunch of those Mainlanders buying these 2-5+ Mil Houses are on welfare. It's almost common knowledge for most Asian circles. It's fucking disgusting, and the government does nothing about it.

Worst case scenario? Wifey moves here into the new house. Kids get into school. Husband divorces her.

Wife gets Welfare cheques, and child support from the Husband.

Originally Posted by taylor192 (Post 7779481)

I corrected your post.

The Conservatives are changing the immigration system cause it is broken. Canada has been receiving ~80% return on each new immigrant since the laws were loosen a couple decades ago cause the quality of immigrant has decreased. Ie we are losing money on each new immigrant by subsidizing services for them as they do not earn enough to pay for 100% of their cost to society - nevermind add to society like you're wrongly assuming.

For those thinking I'm being racist, don' bite my head off unless you understand my argument. We used to have a very tight immigrant policy that rewarded immigrants with skills, that was loosened a few decades ago letting virtually anyone in regardless if they offered any benefit to Canadian society. There's TONS of studies on this, I welcome you to read them.

Originally Posted by taylor192 (Post 7779481)

There's lots of land, that myth gets debunked over and over. Look around at the construction, tons of density going up and Surrey will eclipse Vancouver in size cause there's tons of room to expand.

Originally Posted by observer (Post 7780587)

Why can't we all get along and see the world as one. People are people. It's a small world and there are opportunities everywhere. Let's face it, globalization is here to stay.

Originally Posted by epicbeardman (Post 7780439)

haha West Van. The last bastion of hope for rich white people in Vancouver, alas, that too is gone. I bet they're shitting bricks...

Originally Posted by Lomac (Post 7780426)

But are these people the rule or the exception?



Don't get me wrong, I was merely making a generic blanket statement about Canada's need for immigrants, not commenting on the actual people coming in. I know there are issues on hand with the current immigration rules and people are slipping through that shouldn't be.




Yes and no. I'll talk about Langley because I'm familiar with it. For the longest time, no structure was allowed to exceed four stories, which seriously limited the amount of units being build on a particular plot of land. As well, a large chunk of Langley is protected by the ALR. In fact, a very much needed overpass on Mufford Cres/64th Ave was delayed for months because the ALR deemed it took too much protected land in order to build it. Keep in mind that trains literally run directly through the middle of Langley City almost every 30 minutes, with only one overpass that was built in an awkward location to alleviate the congestion that builds up when this happens. If the ALR was fighting this hard to not give up land for an issue that literally brings traffic to a standstill and creates massive backlogs, imagine how hard they've been fighting to prevent plots of farm land from being rezoned into residential areas.

In fact, High Point Estates, Langley's latest multi-million dollar housing community on 200th St/0-8th Ave was only approved after it was turned into an equestrian/housing development. Half the homes have room enough to board horses, with a giant piece of land given as a stable and riding arena. And even that took years to be approved.

I actually know one of the members on the ALR board and talked to him about this a couple years back. His stance, which is shared by the others, is that we need to protect as much farm land as possible because otherwise our ability to support our communities with fresh produce will be severely hampered. Yes, I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what it amounted to.

I currently live on the cusp of the ALR in South Langley and even though I know various neighbours who own farm land that is basically now no good for growing anything but Christmas trees or for green houses, they're unable to take their relatively unusable land and restructure it for anything else. And forget about building another house on your land to rent out because that's forbidden by the ALR.

Yes, North Langley (Walnut Grove) is growing by the minute, but a large chunk of that land was rezoned industrial land and was not protected by the ALR.

I can't speak about the rest of the Lower Mainland, but at least in Langley it's hard to expand housing developments for newcomers.

Originally Posted by drunkrussian (Post 7780709)

they still have their north van. for now.
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