A simple question

In two parts:

1. Will it be a short, sharp correction, like in 1982, or a long, drawn out correction looking something like the current US version?
2. Why?
   

May 2008 vs May 2010

Let's say the rest of 2010 plays out like May 2008 to December 2008. You're sitting on a decent down payment and you have an opportunity to low ball in October/November getting around 15% off today's prices on a SFH. You can get a 5-year mortgage at roughly the same interest rate as today. What do you do?

The Rental Market

Just wanted to let you all know our recent experience in the rental market. We're moving in early summer. We just negotiated 7% off the asking rent and got the landlord to agree to NO lease. It's month-to-month for us on a 3-bed house near a recreation centre in the central CRD. We'll be within 15 minutes of downtown and 15 minutes of the highway out of town.

Yep, the market she's a changing.

Oh, and in case you're wondering how we got the discount with no lease: we asked for it, right after the landlord complained about their current noisy tenants wrecking their recent house buying experience, with a reminder that we're married professionals with decent income and quiet lifestyle.

The stars are lining up

If you're following the real estate and mortgage markets, you know what I mean. I feel like a kid in a candy shop with a pocket full of cash and no other customers. Soon, old man behind the counter, you will be begging me for my money, not the other way around. Heh.

Open post

My wife and I are super busy shopping for a house right now so I don't have much time to blog. We figure this is the perfect time to get in before interest rates and house prices jump higher in unison forever pricing us out. We plan to take out the maximum allowable too before the new lending rules kick in on the 19th. Wish us luck!

CREA president thinks you are too stupid to understand

Wow, Dale, just wow. The outgoing president of the CREA is having a bad time in the media lately. And today he made things worse.

Long story short, CREA opens MLS up to allow flat-fee listings by licensed realtors if the local member boards approve the changes locally. The Canadian Competition Bureau responds with "that's a step in the wrong direction" and argues it makes the marketplace less competitive not more (a position I agree with).

Picture this: Dale's having a press conference. The first question gets asked by a reporter about how the changes will affect the members of the CREA (individual agents and member boards like the VREB), Dale responds: “too complicated for anyone but a real estate agent to understand” and then storms out refusing to answer further questions. But not before getting in one last quip: "There's no point in me trying to explain, when in actual fact they make no difference in the way realtors operate their business and no difference to consumers."

And there it is in a nutshell: the CREA just doesn't get it. Consumers want change. The Competition Bureau is advocating for change. And even the outgoing president of the CREA says that the "changes" voted in today aren't really changes at all.

Tribunal here we come.

Yep, it's different here alright

Hat Tip to Rob Reynolds for links in comments of last post.

I'll just post the pictures. You should definitely read the full post here by Jonathan Tonge at AmericaCanada.blogspot.com






I'm still scratching my head at anyone who thinks this is A) sustainable and B) not a credit bubble. Buy houses people. Buy houses.