When 263 Wright Avenue, in Toronto’s leafy west end, hit the market last Spring, it was sad. Vacant. Neglected. The listing agent said it must sell in an “As is, Where is” state. The pitch: “Attention Builders, Investors And Contractors, An Opportunity To Bring This Gem Back To Its Glory. Private Driveway With Detached Garage.”
In other words, a beater. But in a good hood. The price: $979,000.
Well, it sold in seven days. Bidding war. Lots of emotion. Cars lined up down the street on offer night. The final sale price was $1,303,000, or $323,000 over list – a premium of 31%, plus double land transfer tax of $44,320.
But if you missed out on this tarnished gem the first time, here’s another chance. Six months later it’s for sale all over again. “Attention Builders, Investors And Contractors, An Opportunity To Bring This Gem Back To Its Glory,” says the new listing. “House Being Sold In ‘As Is’ Where Is Condition.”
In other words, nothing’s changed since it changed hands in the Spring for $1.3 million. Except the price. Now it’s on the market for $999,000. Says an experienced local realtor who shared this with me: “Unless this sells for north of $1.42mm, this sucker will absolutely lose money (and this doesn’t count for carrying costs or a penalty for breaking a mortgage). Either the house was crap (which it is), or they realized there’s no money to be made (also likely true). This is too funny.”
Well, here it is…
So on Thursday Bloomberg ran a story with this headline: “Why 2016 may be the year of ‘Peak Housing’ for Canada.” This proves (a) Bloomberg’s a lot smarter than most Canadian media outlets, probably because (b) they read this blog, which is where ‘peak house’ first appeared (May 31st). So when you read about Moisters visiting [email protected] in the New York Times, you’ll know.
Three years ago in Canada there were three bubbly, frothy, horny, outta control housing markets in Canada. Two years ago two were left. Now there’s one. And as more properties like 263 Wright find their way to market, we might be on our way to zero. After all, the arguments against real estate are piling up by the day. TD raised mortgages again yesterday, this time for rental properties and long-am borrowers. The latest onerous regs brought in by Ottawa clicked in this week. CMHC’s boss in recent days has suggested minimum down payments rise, that borrowing should be linked to the income of the borrower and Chinese dudes are not responsible for stupid prices in Vancouver.
Where have you read those things before?
Bond yields are backing up and the Fed will be raising its key rate in 13 days. The latest GDP numbers for Canada (much better) guarantee the Bank of Canada’s next rate move will be up, not down. US rates will rise again twice in 2017, observers believe, and Canadian mortgages will swell right along with them. Meanwhile the Moister Street Test is having an impact on first-timers who now qualify to borrow less than they did in September. Up to 20% of them, swear mortgage brokers, will be punted from the marketplace by the new rules.
Meanwhile sales are down about 40% in VYR, and this week I detailed for you the landlord-rental crisis sweeping Alberta and Saskatchewan (as well as Atlantic Canada). How much evidence is needed to make the obvious, well, obvious?
So what did Bloomberg mean by peak house now being in the rear view mirror?
Simple. The economic stats this week were great, with the exception of one thing – a collapse in residential real estate investment. The downturn was the worst since the financial crisis and seems to be based on a sharp decline in the “Audi A7 Index” – in other words, realtor commissions. They were sitting at an elevated level almost identical to that achieved in the US just prior to that country’s housing gasbag rupturing and blowing up the indebted middle class.
This is interesting:
“The run-up in residential investment as a whole in years past, and this segment in particular, bears eerie resemblance to what transpired south of the border in the 2000s, Doyle observes. If history repeats itself, moving past this peak in real estate commissions won’t necessarily be a harbinger of imminent doom, but rather an early warning sign that a key driver of economic growth has been tapped out — which could foster more widespread weakness further down the road. Ahead of the U.S. housing bust, the downturn in brokers’ commissions and other ownership transfer costs started in the fourth quarter of 2005, well before the beginning of the financial crisis.”
What does it mean? That’s simple, too. Since we’ve allowed real estate to become such a large part of the economy (bigger than all manufacturing, more profound than oil & gas and mining) as property sales and values unwind and the epic household debt remains, things get a lot slower. The dollar takes a hit. Banks, as mentioned here days ago, could lose $17 billion in earnings if houses shed 30% of their value – as happened in Toronto during the last correction.
By the way, did you hear house prices will drop by 8.7% in Vancouver next year? It means if you own the average detached house, you will see a loss in tax-free equity of $139,000. That prediction was just issued by the BC Real Estate Association, and represents at 14.5% reduction from their last prediction – three months ago.
Well, if you’re interested in 263 Wright, or taking over an A7 lease, leave your name with the blog concierge.
179 comments ↓
O’Leary on the rise…
We’re going to have our own popcorn television starting on Feb 24th!
Almost missed the place behind the tree.
The seller should fix the house and list it on AirBnB. They say AirBnB is 15x more profitable than renting it out.
Three years ago in Canada there were three bubbly, frothy, horny, outta control housing markets in Canada. Two years ago two were left. Now there’s one.
——————————————————————————–
Prices still make no sense and are “bubbly” in most of the prime markets in Canada. It’s all still insanely overpriced without a huge correction. I mean, it’s not like Vancouver and Calgary are offering fair value any time soon.
Scotiabank’s revenue from residential housing is less than one percent. Where do you see a 30 percent correction coming from? The banks have been great investments for years and I probably would be retired by now if I have a heavier weighting in banks.
A new market has emerged since the boomers are getting long in tooth – real estate in the form of cemetary plots is HOT – people are dying to get in.
Yeah, because focusing one’s attention on a single property in a market that sells 10,000 homes per month makes you an absolute real estate genius.
Who buys this shit?
MORON!
Maybe I’m wrong but REITS are real estate, right? I’m so happy to own some of them, money appears each month, none of the headaches of actually owning property. Save and invest folks.
Uhh yea, BCREA .
More BS from people who shouldn’t be allowed to issue anything remotely related to “data”.If not vetted independently it is simply meaningless garbage
8.7%? . That horse has already left the barn.
So what industries in Canada are going to do well in a recession???
Canada 5 year government bonds spiked 6 basis pts from 1.01 to 1.07 % today, see link
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/bond/tmbmkca-05y?countrycode=bx
Now one day does not make a trend, but if this holds and yields continue to move higher, fixed mortgage rates are on their way up in Canada.
With world oil prices expected to move higher over the next year, this will add additional pressure to inflation and the US Fed to raise rates.
There are some fundamental changes underway. 2017 is going to be an interesting year.
Our economic and financial system is a debt based counterfeiting system where for every dollar in money/real capital the system created about 15-16 dollars in debt
Borrowers and lenders make the system grow only when both parties have entered in to a transaction because both have the ability and willingness to lend and borrow
To say the economy is growing means that the debt has grown. Debt is the primary driver of income and asset prices. The critical indicator to watch is the Rate of Growth in debt – the change in the ROG in debt is the main contributor to GDP and asset prices. Problem is most of the debt created is non productive and consumption or shelter related. All economies in the long run rely on productivity growth and labour force growth underpinned by productive investment / capital spending and R&D to deliver prosperity.
The ROG of the labour force, productivity and productive investment in Canada are all a joke for many years now. All ROG of these important areas are a fraction of the ROG of debt
A significant portion of the income generated from inflate spending and inflated asset prices was itself derived from the debt
So the whole system has become a debt based Ponzi scheme and now the economy is overloaded with excessive unproductive debt
It is inevitable that the ROG in debt stalls out with each new unit of debt generating less and less unit of GDP and this goes negative. In our case government policy and simple debt capacity limits have now set the stage for the ROG in debt to stall out and cause the debt level to drop
Less ROG in debt means less debt fuelled spending which is less income and also asset prices take a major hit as the Fake credit driven demand disappears
Can u say stagflationary depression eh ?
Garth is right maybe Victoria and GtA have one or two years left gains on real estate.Many couples who only make say $100,000 might not buy a house but a condo instead.Its amazing how Canadians can afford way more expensive real estate then the US.I guess are free health care and much overall higher wages mean we pay a higher price,supply and demand.
(question for all) thoughts on the approved Kinder Morgan pipeline and how some are saying it will resurrect Alberta (and keep BC going) in terms of real estate?
personally I think the only one benefiting from the approval is KMI… everyone else loses
In cab on my way to slong branch.
Some idiot tried to play superman with a go train.
Was at a fund rasier tonight.. I didn’t give a dime.. Bull shitters taking from bill shitters. I’m not a bull shitter. Alto I brag about being one.
The dude who sleeps under the tracks at union station on bay will wake up with a brown 100 dollar bill on his forhead.
Something tells me these zombies in a rush to nowhere will scoop it before the bugger wakes up.
Capitalism I guess.
that sucks bro
30% in GTA…hard to believe.
The same thing is happening in Vancouver; examples: http://www.chpc.biz/history-readings/sentiment-reversal
I’m working on updating provincial household earnings charts (Sept data is most recent)….
AB earnings are 5% below its peak at Oct 2014
ON earnings are 15% below AB
BC earnings are 18% below AB
“Unless this sells for north of $1.42 million, this sucker will absolutely lose money. Either the house was crap, or they realized there’s no money to be made. This is too funny.”
if the owner can sell for what he paid, he will lose 10% say $130,000? I’m guessing he put 20% down so he can sell for a loss. Unless he borrowed the down payment.
al sinclair night
This song in my head everytime imin downtow
https://youtu.be/XFkzRNyygfk
> as property sales and values unwind and the epic household debt remains, things get a lot slower. The dollar takes a hit.
uh oh, this is an open invitation to Mark to argue the dollarette will go up. well, not really an argument, since he never explains why (with intermediate steps) the dollar will go up.
If I was a Realtor with a conscience I would be changing hats. Why waste my time marketing for buyers to do showings of homes. I would be looking for clients exclusively to list the dogs they bought in the past few years. They need to kick out the condo junk high in the sky quickly. Might even stand in the subway handing out my business cards with a sign for the Greater Fools.
In the US, falling house prices (beginning in 2006) weakened the economy and this led to the financial crisis that started in 2008.
Falling house prices crush the economy. Below are some of the reasons why.
Consumer spending slows (two thirds of the American and Canadian economies are based on it).
House sales slow. This affects all jobs directly and indirectly related to the housing industry – from realtors and brokers to construction workers, Home Depot, etc. Indirectly, plenty of other jobs/businesses are affected – from the restaurant down the street to car sales, flights, fuel sales, holidays to Mexico, food delivery, toy sales, … Not much isn’t affected. Lost jobs affects the economy and house prices.
The wealth effect diminishes, resulting in less investment in real estate, home renos and spending in general.
As house prices rise, the economy is stimulated. As prices fall, the economy slows. A slowing economy brings about lower house prices.
16 years of stimulating the Canadian economy trough lax lending standards and low interest rates pushed house prices higher which stimulated the economy. It was a temporary cycle.
Now the opposite cycle will start in Canada – lower house prices will affect the economy and a weakening economy will affect house prices.
Sooner or later taking the easy way leads to big problems. That’s where Canada is at right now.
“By the way, did you hear house prices will drop by 8.7% in Vancouver next year?” – Garth
Can anyone comment if housing East of Maple Ridge (Mission, Abbotsford, Chilliwack etc…) will see the same losses? Zolo kind of shows Maple Ridge holding on.
If I owned a house worth 1.5M, I would sell it and downsize in the Fraser Valley, then invest the left overs.
Home prices in Canada would never crash. Edmonton Calgary holding pretty well even though employment rate is bad. God know where money come from, price have only gone down only lil bit here and there…
From the first few comments, it sounds like some angry realtors. If they were professional they would realize that long term, having average Canadians afford average homes is a good thing for everyone.
Wwait a minute! The dollarette is going to lose more of it’s value because of Toronto?
That city is a bad omen for Canadians. Oil is going to be in the 50-70 range for quite some time, but now all of that is going to be worthless because of a set of pretentious losers living in YUPPIELAND Toronto foreclosing on their homes which they signed up for.
How low is the Canadian dollar going to go if a housing crash happens in Toronto and Vancouver.
I think I am feeling sick. Has anyone seen what the bond market did in the US today. The 20 year government dropped 1.26%. This is huge and is going cause a whole lot of pain for investors (house and equities) if they are not positioned properly. The 20 has dropped over 20% since Trump was elected. This is a gigantic drop for Government Treasuries those who do not know. In only three weeks.!!! Seat belts please we are going to get bumpy.
Lease busters is flat. I don’t expect that to change unless there is a sustained decrease in sales volume.
https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=CA&q=Lease%20busters
#3 bb on 12.01.16 at 6:42 pm
The seller should fix the house and list it on AirBnB. They say AirBnB is 15x more profitable than renting it out.
————————————————————
Even at that the owner would have to get $350 per night, every night for 52 weeks per year based on the purchase price in order for it to be viable. Just my very quick back of the envelope calculations. And that is before doing any work on it or considering the opportunity costs on the money that’s into it plus taxes, etc. etc. Hooped.
“Attention Builders, Investors And Contractors, An Opportunity To Bring This Gem Back To Its Glory.”
—————————————————————-
It appears that it’s hard to find a “Stupid” entity that has money to invest.
Bond yields are backing up and the Fed will be raising its key rate in 13 days. The latest GDP numbers for Canada (much better) guarantee the Bank of Canada’s next rate move will be up, not down.
…
This is wrong. Smoking man has guaranteed that BoC cuts next week. he is never wrong. I took out a heloc today and will bet the farm on usdcad next week. Thx smokey I’ll be a gazillionaire on next weeks cut.
There is so much disconnect between asset prices, income and valuation. That is in the canadian RE market and the US/CAD stock market (Facebook’s market cap 325B? That’s insane). I think the US will carry on with debt monetization and I don’t see a rate hike happening, the FED will likely carry with the asset purchase…but who knows?
This house in Vancouver Dunbar (West Side) has been listed since May 30/16. Originally priced at just over 3.6 million the price was dropped in September to the current level. Rumour has it that the seller rejected an offer in June that was over the asking price. Reason? They did not want to sell to a foreign buyer for fear that the house would be torn down. Whoops!
http://dexterrealty.com/officelistings.html/details-60168838
Just did some quick math. 1.4 million will pay for 47 years of rent at $2500/mon.
Get on the trump victory tour train. Is this dude awesome or what. Lord emperor of everything good in the world. Everything will be solved on day one. Believe me.
#33 Patrick McMullen on 12.01.16 at 7:50 pm
There is so much disconnect between asset prices, income and valuation. That is in the canadian RE market and the US/CAD stock market (Facebook’s market cap 325B? That’s insane). I think the US will carry on with debt monetization and I don’t see a rate hike happening, the FED will likely carry with the asset purchase…but who knows?
——————————————————
My crystal ball tells me no rate hike in either US or Canada.
CIBC exposure to mortgage market ‘extraordinarily high,’ analysts warn
http://www.bnn.ca/cibc-exposure-to-mortgage-market-extraordinarily-high-analysts-warn-1.621015
#4 Fed-up on 12.01.16 at 6:46 pm
Prices still make no sense and are “bubbly” in most of the prime markets in Canada. It’s all still insanely overpriced without a huge correction. I mean, it’s not like Vancouver and Calgary are offering fair value any time soon.
///////////////////////////////////////////////
Bingo.
In fact nationally I’d guess to ‘make sense’ residential RE should 50% less. A massive portion of living expenses for the lower & middle class /is/ shelter. Look at any finance article or programme more often than not, lodging takes at least 40-60% of someone’s after tax expenses. And in silly areas almost 100% and above! Far more than food, toiletries and clothing combined, crazy.
Imagine as a society for a second these costs to be half, that circle of high costs of living demanding higher wages would be slow.
Yeah I know right? Dream on…
9 comments.. I know there is more.
So I’m posting this so I can read the rest..
http://www.theprovince.com/business/real-estate/forecasts+foreclosures+what+does+newest+metro+vancouver/12456393/story.html David Hutchinson, a Sutton realtor, monitors Vancouver market activity daily and has seen a number of “notable price corrections” recently. Listings show a house in east Vancouver’s Collingwood neighbourhood that was listed earlier this month for $1.6 million, was re-listed this week for $999,000 — a 38-per-cent reduction in the asking price in three weeks.
“It’s kind of a fickle market at the moment,” Hutchinson said. “The market is still up from 2015, it’s just not ridiculous anymore.”
#33 Pulsars pump it out on 12.01.16 at 7:40 pm
Bond yields are backing up and the Fed will be raising its key rate in 13 days. The latest GDP numbers for Canada (much better) guarantee the Bank of Canada’s next rate move will be up, not down.
…
This is wrong. Smoking man has guaranteed that BoC cuts next week. he is never wrong. I took out a heloc today and will bet the farm on usdcad next week. Thx smokey I’ll be a gazillionaire on next weeks cut.
….
That’s insane, forex is for playing with pocket change.. Like lottary tickets..
Boc is cutting in Jan.. I would lighten up that bet for now… But then again Wynee. T2. Butts and Noterly.
You might fine..
Can we really call the equity in homes in Vancouver and Toronto “tax free” anymore? Between property taxes and the outlandish new “property transfer taxes” I think it’s fair to say you don’t own your house anymore, you and the city co-owns it. And if you are subject to tax on HAM, it’s even worse.
Land transfer taxes must be against the constitution somehow. Somebody should look into it. The GST doesn’t even apply to second hand real estate, only new builds. Although I shouldn’t have said that I probably gave Justin Biebereau a new idea. (Why are Canada’s 2 biggest current embarrassments both named Justin?)
Fact is, taxes are out of control in Canada and that is why everyone is living on debt. And the government thinks they can raise taxes even further. Why do we continue to elect governments that do not understand you cannot get blood from a stone? And that even if you use goats, you can still only get 100% of the blood at once, not more?
What is creeping upon us with higher income taxes, GST, PST (well I guess they call them the HST now), property taxes, land transfer taxes, sin taxes, royalties, licence fees, fuel taxes, carbon taxes, heck there is a tax embedded in everything and it’s all bound to go up! What’s happened is we’ve slowly but surely relinquished nearly all of our property rights to the government. All they have to do is raise the existing taxes a little more and they will have achieved “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”, with only a thin veil of freedom and rights still draped over it.
I think I’m going to figure out how to be “needy” according to the system, because having “ability” is becoming much more work than it’s worth.
And this whole “taxing the rich” thing is so bogus. Do you know why lawyers charge so much? Because after paying for and attending law school, living like baristas until they pass the bar, paying their staff and the rent on their office, they have to pay almost 50% of what remains to the government and then pay all of the GST, fuel taxes, etc. I made the list above, to the government. They have to charge you $350 an hour to have $100 an hour left to live on. Doctors too. This is where we are at folks. It’s also why you pay $140 an hour for a plumber but he’s only getting $35. The overhead is huge and it’s mostly taxes, with some capital costs as well also all taxed at multiple points.
The whole system is now so top heavy that collapse is the only potential outcome. Venezuela style. Probably take a while though, it’ll happen around when people can no longer borrow because they can’t live on their incomes due to taxes on everything, compound taxes even, and well you can only continue borrowing for so long and then you can’t anymore. Ever had a friend that needs to borrow $20 every time you go out with him and never pays it back? Eventually there is a day when you stop going out with him. Only today he has to borrow $50 because the price of beer is through the roof. Well, the day the lender realize they aren’t going to get paid back is not so far away.
In a correctly managed society, people would live within their means, have employment, and pay a certain amount of taxes but not have to use the credit card to pay for young Jimmy’s soccer and milk. However we are far now past that society. The government has become so large that it is consuming more that 50% of everybody’s labor, and still has to borrow billions more each year. This is something that cannot last. I can’t remember who said it but a good quote is “Something that cannot go on for ever, eventually doesn’t.”
So for now the government is “kicking the can down the road”. When you are kicking the can, you don’t really think about the end point when you stop kicking it, you are a kid after all, but at some point for some reason you can’t do that anymore. My feeling is that time is approaching.
The 10-year yield is 2.44%. U.S bank shares are being bought like hot muffins.
(Successful) Traders are caly Tweeting about entering short positions against bond ETFs. Looks like higher yields are sticking this time.
Felling this tune huge.
https://youtu.be/n4RjJKxsamQ
Do you buggers know how to bet it. I do but with 53 book sales I’m not sharing.. Figure it out you’re selves..dont need the loot from the sales. Just a bit of respect for dedication to this comment section.
I’ve proven myself.. My loyal fans.. Email me if you want to know.
Sorry for the aggrestion.. Out of wine into the jack.
Garth make this the last post of the night.. Getting jack pissed off at nothing.
Realtors shysters like the ones on hot property are horrible liars and will be remembered for being jusy that but they will have already made alot of money for doing very little work. Happy Housing Crash Everyone! :-)
December is already here, holiday season…I want to thank all of you folks for all of the information and links and things this year. it has been great for me.
To all of you an early gift. unplugging the key board till January
Poof gone
I dedicate this tune to the zombies that ride the train into downtown, then take it back home.
Totally ignoring that poor bastards that took the wrong fork in the road freezing in the streets while you fly the progressive flag.
That’s why I hate lefties.
https://youtu.be/6Ejga4kJUts
Garth, your blog is becoming a compilation of examples of outrageous home prices in Toronto and Vancouver. I think we get it..these markets are over priced..we dont need 10 new examples a week on your blog..yes the real esate markets in these cities are extremely over valued..yes there are unscrupulous people in these cities pumping real estate.
Perhaps you could diversify your blog somewhat to other markets in the country. Or give us an idea of when this market will finally collapse..how wil T2 deal with it..how will Trump affect things..anything else but more examples of the TO and Vancouver market..please Garth spare us this subject..
Read the last twenty posts. Scotch will help. — Garth
# 43:
Well said. We are taxed far too high, this parasitism of the productive must stop. Why work??
This was an interesting report:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHZ_tlWgFtk
What is your fair share of what someone else has earned??? It has to be EARNED before it can be taxed and stolen.
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of OTHER people’s money.
To make Canada GREAT again, we need a 20% across the board income tax reduction. Just for a start. Stop taxing the productive — reward them.
Done by dropping government spending 5%/year for 4 years. Every regular Canadian tightens their spending by 5% all the time, government can damn well do it. Enough.
Housing continues to rise in dawson creek b.c.
#45 Smoking Man on 12.01.16 at 8:31 pm
Felling this tune huge.
https://youtu.be/n4RjJKxsamQ
Do you buggers know how to bet it. I do but with 53 book sales I’m not sharing.. Figure it out you’re selves..dont need the loot from the sales. Just a bit of respect for dedication to this comment section.
I’ve proven myself.. My loyal fans.. Email me if you want to know.
Sorry for the aggrestion.. Out of wine into the jack.
Garth make this the last post of the night.. Getting jack pissed off at nothing.
—
Lesbian teachers dancing in your brain…
There are 53 adolescent males reading this blog?! Who knew!
You should be cracking the 15000 barrier in ranking soon! Moving up the charts!
Lulu Sales Rank: 15167
#24 Self directed:
Albion Resident here; Maple Ridge is “hanging on” only because it is the last “affordable” SFH within survivable commute distance to Vancouver. Lots of Vancouver refugees have been liquidating their gains and relocating to the Ridge. Even then, in Albion houses have been sitting on the market for two months or more before selling, whereas this past February, approx. two dozen houses within walking distance from my house sold in two weeks or less (some are desperately back on the market, in a last ditch attempt to flip)
When the bubble truly bursts and market psychology shifts, Maple Ridge (and Mission, sorry Mindy) will be ground zero, and Albion, with hundreds of new condos and town homes along 240th, will be scorched earth.
As a survivor of the California housing crash of 2006-2011, I know what I’m talking about; the outlying areas around the hottest real estate markets (SF/SJ and Santa Cruz, which was at one point was the 2nd least affordable market in the US- front page news in our little hometown paper) will be decimated. If you don’t believe me, do some research on the RE market crashes in the cities of Tracy, Stockton, and Watsonville- 60-70% losses from peak in some cases. One bedroom condos, 10 minutes from the beach for less than $20k? Believe it. Sad thing is, that market is once again overheated; it will be interesting to see the effect of rising rates in 2017.
If it can happen in Silicon Valley and California’s central coast, it can happen in Maple Ridge, and when it does, this renter will be ready to vultch…
Debt Slave Creator?
#12 Debtslavecreator on 12.01.16 at 6:51 pm said:
Our economic and financial system is a debt based counterfeiting system…
***************************************
Oh dear, sounds like someone got sucked in by various doomer sites and missed out on getting ahead in our economic and financial system.
Don’t ya know the majority on here are successful one percenters or on the way there?
Oh well, people really do believe what they want to.
The reality is that credit and debt are the grease of the economy and have been for hundreds of years.
People have been warning of a debt crisis continuously since approximately the first time a cave man borrowed some food from another with a promise to repay.
Debtslavecreator also said: (and let’s face it this is without a doubt a he)
“Problem is most of the debt created is non productive and consumption or shelter related.”
That’s hilarious since shelter is one of the basic necessities of life. Increased consumption and better shelter is a good portion of EXACTLY what we want the economy to provide.
Not to be too skeptical, but I have been following this blog since the beginning and have seen this bear sentiment on housing with predictions of its demise before, only to see housing double in value.
I don’t see any houses sit in the east end of Toronto, and with the population projected to increase to 9 million by 2030, I just don’t see how a correction is possible in this city. I believed it before but not so much now. Everyone that comes here seems to have an unlimited amount of money in their pocket. Hopefully I am proved wrong!
#43 Nonplussed
Bingo….great post.
Now with gas prices up .4-.5 cents/litre, now, add another similar raise soon PLUS the carbon tax in Jan, let’s see how fast prices rise on everything…..yes 2017 will be interesting.
This guy rented to a psycho family that trashed his house. He knew what was happening, but tenant renting by-laws prevented him from direct action, allowing them to wreck the place for 6 months. The landlord has little recourse.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/nine-tons-of-garbage-animal-feces-and-30000-in-damage-left-behind-by-evicted-ontario-tenant
#50 cecilhenry on 12.01.16 at 8:54 pm said:
We are taxed far too high, this parasitism of the productive must stop.
What is your fair share of what someone else has earned??? It has to be EARNED before it can be taxed and stolen.
*************************************
To tax is to steal?
Really? The fact is that in our system NO One EARNS anything all on their own. It’s a complex system of supply chain and distribution. Not to mention free education through grade 12 and subsidies after that. Government is an essential part of it. So are the banks.
Your wages are earned in a system where part of the deal is that some of your wages are taxed away.
If you paying a lot of taxes then you are benefiting greatly from the system. Be grateful.
The only thing worse than having to pay a lot of taxes is not having to.
And your taxes could be a lot higher. The fact is that corporate taxes in this country have been cut from about 48% circa 1990 to 25% today. And I believe personal tax rates have been higher in the past as well. That seldom gets a mention.
Even tax freedom day comes earlier in the year now than it used to (Sometime in early June?)
Perhaps our host, a former Revenue Minister can confirm.
Shit I listen too while fkying A plasma flier over the rainbow
https://youtu.be/vmQXmqbZ3Pc
“Chinese dudes are not responsible for stupid prices in Vancouver.” – CMHC BossDude [apocryphal attribution]
#HowOdd… #That’sExactlyWhatRemax™Man… #[redacted™]TonyJoeSaid,Too…
[CBC] – Victoria foreign buyer tax would be premature, says Tony Joe, spokesman for Vancouver Chapter of the Asian Real Estate Association of America
…”Government should not rush to impose a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers in Victoria, despite a sudden spike in the number of home sales to non-Canadians, says the head of the Asian Real Estate Association of America’s Vancouver chapter.
In the latest figures from the B.C. government, foreign purchases in Victoria rose to 6.3 per cent of real estate sales in the Capital Regional District between June 10 and Oct. 31, virtually doubling the previous reporting period’s 3.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, foreign purchases have dropped sharply in Metro Vancouver since the tax took effect in August…”…
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/victoria-real-estate-foreign-buyers-1.3875688
[NoteToGT: “Will the real TonyJoe please stand up.”, or – how not to do photoshop: http://tinyurl.com/go9xuow vs. http://tinyurl.com/zydzq2p ]
I Only NOTICE GAS PRICE INCREASES?
#56 common sense on 12.01.16 at 9:18 pm said:
Now with gas prices up .4-.5 cents/litre, now, add another similar raise soon PLUS the carbon tax in Jan, let’s see how fast prices rise on everything…..yes 2017 will be interesting.
***************************************
But did you mention it when gas prices fell during most of 2016? We had 78 cents in Edmonton last week.
HI Garth,
Believing in and agreeing with (in principle) the desired value split in equities in an asset list, how do you consider a Canadian Co. such as Enbridge, a 50- 50 split between Can. & US or Just Can. only. I believe especially considering the huge amount of US assets they will have once the merger is completed that the 50 -50 should apply.
Your comment please.
TurnerNation: – You will find what you are looking for at 803 King Street West and keep your powder dry.
Renter properties means rental buildings or my second home which I am renting
How come the comments keep disappearing unless you then post some garbage like this .. and then they appear again and you can read them. Very weird.
No it is not a refresh problem
Oddly psychotic.. Are all comments now being screened by Trump before official posting?
Respect for Freddy Mercury
A flaming fag.. Who made me un homophobic
Loved that guy.. Wrote the song that I tell my kids I meet your mother.
Guns and roses tribute to the man of men.
https://youtu.be/OWUhHXgZ_dw
Just to put things into perspective, here is a listing for a house in Palm Springs California selling for the same price as 263 Wright Ave. No bidding wars though. This one has been reduced.
http://www.curbed.com/2016/11/30/13793100/palm-springs-california-midcentury-homes-for-sale
Kids when I met your mother in the theater.. This time was on.. And she was drunk.. It’s in the book.
https://youtu.be/_Jtpf8N5IDE
bump
#60 Investorsfriend
When they dropped, did you see any decrease whatsoever on anything deliverable or only at the pumps?
More inflation….here we come big time and more and more debt for those not prepared.
What made Freddy Mercury a man’s man.
He found his voice. 9 octaves I’m jelous.
When you do that. Find it.
Nothing else matters.
So much to teach.. Little time left.
Gloriously drunk.
Last tune.
https://youtu.be/xvaEJzoaYZk
Wonder what all the realtors in Calgary and Saskatoon are doing now? Career change?
The benchmark price for detached homes sold last month in Greater Vancouver hit a record $1.58-million – 33.7 per cent higher than in September, 2015.
Tell me again how an 8.7% decrease in prices next year makes a serious dent in that number. Still outrageous.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/record-high-real-estate-prices-could-mean-sharp-decline-in-vancouver/article32485696/
It’s no record. Van detached average prices are $200,000 less than four months ago. Pay attention. — Garth
The comments section here reminds of the zoo.
There are all sorts of animals here.
Garth is a good zookeeper.
If I had to compare myself to one I would probably say Giant Panda.
I’m fairly docile most of the time,but if you mess with me I’ll come alive.
I’m really just here to chew the bamboo…
M42BC
It was year 1999, lazy flamingo, hess village band is about to finish paying for the nigh, girls that played bass guitar leaned over to our table and asked rolling stones or ccr. i knew who the rolling stones are, but had no clue who ccr is, i sad ccr i dont know them, she played and sang.
https://youtu.be/5hid10EgMXE
WULLY ,I saw Ontario needs a lot of lawyers.
Pack up your Dell and head east young man…
M42BC
#58 InvestorsFriend on 12.01.16 at 9:30 pm
I do not really want to sound like a party popper, but in my humble opinion, I think we should be taxed at least 120% if not more. It’s only faaair. . . . like ratios of mortgages against value of those houses we own. . . . yet to be found out. Eh?
For all the Foodies out there in Southwestern Ontario mainly London …what a HoDown; YeeHah. The choice of stores is outrageous and the selection of foods the best. Forget old U.S. of A nosireeBob.
The competition in the grocery retail market in London is a consumer’s dream but the merchant is stepping up to the plate. Canada is a mediocre landscape at best in retail i.e. Canadian Tire.
Toronto is poorly served for food in the downtown core due to commercial rent so I was blasted away at nonstop choice for food markets in London with parking lots the size of football fields.
Whole Foods could not compete in this brazen frontier of unhinged Canadiana. We are able to outdo the Americans when we forget ourselves. London used to be so dowdy and frumpy in the food world. No wonder Target couldn’t get outa town fast enough.
Now that the US has installed an ADHD-afflicted Tweeting insomniac at the helm, hell bent on repealing the Dodd Frank Act, I’m guessing Wall Street has already lined up their top gun lobbyists in preparation for the next unregulated bull run to GFC v2.0
Might as well hop on and ride the wave.
The trick again is to recognize when to stop pushing the penny across the table before it falls off the edge.
#58:
Translation: ‘You didn’t build that’. Right?
That is the mindset of the taker, who doesn’t worry about how its earned first, just that its redistributed as he wishes.
There is no ‘agreement’, its done with force.
Forced redistribution of income is theft, and makes citizens into slaves and property of someone else’s agenda. WE have people with careers based on the size of and continued existence of poverty and state dependence. They don’t earn their way by voluntary contract and association — they coerce it by state coercion and force.
Democracy has become one vote and 2 minutes of input every four years, followed by government fiat on 10,000 decisions to tax, steal and coerce everything from you for next 4 years–with state force to back it up.
The grocery store is the only place left where even a modicum of free market forces, reciprocity and direct accountability are evident every day, not twice a decade.
Taxation of 30-40-50% plus is slavery. Period. The annoying Government of Canada advertising jingles and sound bites are just the tip of this parasitic iceberg.
Got that raise and 10 more hours a week responsibility– well not to worry, most of the benefit will go to the government anyways.
‘Lean In’ and contribute to this?? NO WAY. NO. My only question: What can I do to actively STOP this involuntary subsidization of a parasitic system that is destroying my freedom, my life.
#35 slim
Just did some quick math. 1.4 million will pay for 47 years of rent at $2500/mon.
——————————————
Here’s some more quick math. $1.4 invested with an average return of 6% annually gets you $7000/mo indefinitely.
Think 6% is too much to hope for? Then how about even 4% which yields $4666/mo forever. Add on CPP and OAP and you’ll be flying, slim!
Plus, your heirs will take over a nice lump of liquid wealth and not a moldy 60-year-old house full of worthless crap they’ll have to pay someone to cart away. Win-win.
54 InvestorsFriend
————————
You don’t understand what the commenter meant by ‘Debt-based system’. No one is saying that credit should be done away with. But when the whole financial system operates on the basis that ALL MONEY is created out of thin air (based on nothing and backed by nothing) and that then those who created said money enforce a ‘taxation’ system where interest must be paid on it with more of the same money which someone must borrow, again at interest, from those who create it out of nothing. It is a viscous circle which only ends with complete collapse when the point arrives that there is no more ‘principle’ in the money and it is now all ‘debt’. Such a system can’t endure more than about 100 years form the time of its inception. We are at that point now.
To tax is to steal?
Really? The fact is that in our system NO One EARNS anything all on their own. It’s a complex system of supply chain and distribution. Not to mention free education through grade 12 and subsidies after that. Government is an essential part of it. So are the banks.
—————————-
I guess you go along with OBAMA when he says “you didn’t build that”.
I think with columns like today’s you must be well on your way to becoming a born-again ‘moister’….
I SEE ONLY WHAT I WANT TO SEE
#67 common sense on 12.01.16 at 10:04 pm asked me:
#60 InvestorsFriend
When they [gas prices] dropped, did you see any decrease whatsoever on anything deliverable or only at the pumps?
******************************************
Not if I am like most people. In that case I only ever notice when prices rise. I never ever notice a single time when prices go down.
The ” Audi A7 index”. Where do you come up with stuff? THATS why I read this blog! That and the dog pics.
Don’t ever stop my freirnd! ….. BTW you are short sighted on the precious metals.
Many were absolutely 100% wrong about Brexit. And they 100% wrong about Trump. Yet those same people Won’t bend on the metals and potential upside. Maybe time for a little self reflection.
No, I did not build that
To those who asked me about if I built that:
No I did not. But there is a good chance I own a piece of its lightly taxed a$$ as an investor. Thanks for asking.
This lifelong Albertan of 60 years has a skewed and favourable view of Toronto the Good. I had an unearned charmed existence in the early to late ’80s with two sisters living in Hogtown.
One was a UofT student living near Younge and Eligible in a rental at 357 Cleveland. For you motorheads out there, I wished it was 359 Cleveland. A fine mill.
The other rented in Wychwood Park and then hosted me at a splendid mansion on Heath in Forest Hill with an oak out front which had a canopy that would cover the largest lots in Calgary.
I thought all Torontonians lived like that as I enjoyed “Cats” and “Les Deplorables” in your theatre district, Jays games at the CNE (or whatever the stadium was called) and emerging C&W groups were rocking it at the Horsehoe Tavern.
Maybe I crossed paths with the Hon. Turner.
Haven’t been there since about ’89. Should I visit again or has it all gone downhill? It would be interesting to meet a person who voted for Wynne for breakie at Bregman’s.
Re: the picture above the post
Why is a young girl that age wearing heels? Ridiculous!
1.3 million for a house that requires 600K in renovations and a year later they are selling it again. This doesn’t prove that Toronto’s real estate market is crashing. This proves that humans descended from monkeys and there’s still a lot of monkey left.
The bigger idiot……………
I regret my earlier comment. Name dropping is unAlbertan and low grade.
I should mention my fondest memory of TO. Staying at a low budget hotel in downtown and riding the subway for about an hour north to York U with stinky hockey bags to vanquish the lightweights from McGill and U of T in a puck tourney.
The Glory Days as an “energy player.”
#13 Ex Wok – where did Mr. T ever say anything about Victoria or GTA ever having a certain amount of time left?
Anecdotal, but, my old lady’s dad owns a mortgage brokerage firm in the GTA… Latest word is, business is drying up.
^ Was told that just tonight
attn: blog concierge
Please throw in my offer of 142,000 cad into the hat for the crap shark. K thx bye.
#69 ej on 12.01.16 at 10:25 pm
Wonder what all the realtors in Calgary and Saskatoon are doing now? Career change?
————————————————————
They’re trying to find renters to fill their empty condos they bought on spec.
Im thinking the fed may do a catch up rise on Dec 14, what do you think about a .50 increase …….
#41 robert james. It’s still “ridiculous” has a long way to go…down………
#63 – Renter properties means rental buildings or my second home which I am renting
It means any property that is not your primary residence, and that you are going to rent out. You might get away with a cottage not being considered a “rental”.
#59 Nemisis – did you see the VREB release today with the comment from President Nugent regarding the consideration by the BC gov to implement the 15pct FBT in Southern Van Island? To me that is basically saying get ready for it.
Meanwhile, Vic realtor Tony Joe say implementation of the tax would be premature – ehmmm, Mr. Joe, wasn’t the the guy that sent mail solicitations to many Victoria residents stating something to the effect that “buyers from China are willing to pay top dollar for your property”.
Mr Joe, pls state your real intentions….you could care less about prices in Victoria so long as they go up up up and benefit you and your clients in the process. Am I wrong???? Please let me know why you think so.
http://www.vicnews.com/business/388554281.html
Canadian banks could loose 17 bn but this is not a big deal, the big five earn 130 bn every year and their capitalization is above 400 bn. I guess economy will tank a little bit but if you are not a greater fool, and have a balanced portfolio…
Also you may be able to get a cheap Audi soon !
https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Single-Family/17295241/3631-BEARCROFT-DRIVE-Richmond-British-Columbia-V6X3B2
On the market since September 27/2016.
Original asking: $1,138,000
Dec 1st asking: $1, 123,000
Still not moving….
https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Single-Family/17389453/56-DEERFIELD-DRIVE-Delta-British-Columbia-V4M2W9
Down $100k as of Dec 1st (on the market for a while)
https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Single-Family/17455868/PH3-7325-ARCOLA-STREET-Burnaby-British-Columbia-V5E0A8
As of Nov 2nd, asking pc: $1,198,000
As of Dec 1st, asking pc: $1,098,000
not selling yet
FLOP:
Re: My Prospects as an An Attorney in Ont.
Nope. Better coin as a Registered Nurse in AB. Having needled hundreds of horses and bovines on the Great Plains, I have mastered “This won’t hurt a bit.” Mostly subcutaneous.
Are we even sure that the previous $1.3M transaction was truly arms-length? I think its been pretty obvious over the past few years that the RE sell side has been engaging in a lot of ‘hanky panky’ with respect to transactions, and many of them may very well be shams intended to foment the narrative of rising prices when such is disproven through analysis of the sales mix effect on mean price changes.
Would be nicer to be able to dig deeper into this one. Especially since its not normal behavior for vendors to accept such a large loss on a short-term transaction like that. Especially when the newspapers are claiming rising prices.
BTW everyone, I’m thinking of organizing a coffee meetup downtown YVR on a Sunday afternoon in January. Anyone interested in meeting the famous Mark?
I would love to read Garth’s take on US RE prices having returned to pre-crash levels. Is the same movie going to be played again, or are there enough things that make it different this time?
“The 10-year yield is 2.44%. U.S bank shares are being bought like hot muffins.”
Completely irrational. The portfolios of the US banks are melting down with the higher interest rates, and people are buying bank shares on some sort of theory that the banks’ profits will increase? Absolutely freakin’ bizarre.
Banks have benefitted massively over the past 35 years of falling interest rates and rising quoted asset values against which to lend. Banks have become a disproportionate chunk of the stock market and GDP (~40% of the TSX in Canada, BTW, which should send chills down the spines of Canadian index investors!). If low rates have created champagne times for the banks, it logically follows that higher rates will create quite the opposite — times of profound weakness, falling asset values, and compressed margins.
The extent to which even professional investment advisors believe that higher rates benefit the banks/insurers is truly astonishing. When the facts, that of the banks/insurers benefitting extremely from low rates, are right before their eyes and visible in the extravagance they enjoy in their professions.
Of course, “the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent” applies here. But think about it for a moment before you buy into the BS narrative that rising long-term interest rates are good for banks. Back-testing only to the 1980s doesn’t cover a complete long-term interest rate cycle (you need to go back at least 60-70 years for that!). Advisors that advise excess concentrations of financial stocks, or even bonds, rather than truly balanced portfolios will end up with egg on their faces and their reputations certainly called into question.
#58 InvestorsFriend on 12.01.16 at 9:30 pm
#50 cecilhenry on 12.01.16 at 8:54 pm said:
We are taxed far too high, this parasitism of the productive must stop.
What is your fair share of what someone else has earned??? It has to be EARNED before it can be taxed and stolen.
*************************************
To tax is to steal?
Really? The fact is that in our system NO One EARNS anything all on their own. It’s a complex system of supply chain and distribution. Not to mention free education through grade 12 and subsidies after that. Government is an essential part of it. So are the banks.
Your wages are earned in a system where part of the deal is that some of your wages are taxed away.
If you paying a lot of taxes then you are benefiting greatly from the system. Be grateful.
The only thing worse than having to pay a lot of taxes is not having to.
And your taxes could be a lot higher. The fact is that corporate taxes in this country have been cut from about 48% circa 1990 to 25% today. And I believe personal tax rates have been higher in the past as well. That seldom gets a mention.
Even tax freedom day comes earlier in the year now than it used to (Sometime in early June?)
Perhaps our host, a former Revenue Minister can confirm.
—-
your monetary system is private
that is the point
its not as is a benevolent king wants tribute
private ownership of central banks is Never discussed in msm
because it constitutes ‘the system’
and ‘the system’ is built and maintained by lies
everyone not in the ‘big club’ is a slave to
‘the system’
ezra pound called taxation ‘legalized theft’
#77 cecilhenry
Yes. The last paragraph of your comment is bang on. Men in Japan, USA, and much of the free world have noticed for quite a while what you are now catching onto.
Especially Japan, but the idea is the same. Many young men are refusing to work themselves to death as their fathers did. They are living minimalist, not getting married, and refusing to father children. The Japanese Government is in a panic. Many men world wide are walking away. Justifiably so. The game is rigged in every way against males. And these men aren’t fighting anybody or anything. They are content to simply walk away and watch society collapse and burn. It’s why Trump won. Me and Smokey called it.
I was way ahead of my time. Me First.
007
Freedom First
Master of Freedomonics
Oil is not saved and will not hold the current plus $50 price but will drop again. OPEC is not the power block it was 20 years ago. Suppliers will fill the demand space by either pumping more openly, think the USA and Russia or pumping covertly, think Iran.
Plus modern cars and heating systems are more energy efficient. I don’t see Putin being told what to do by Saudi Arabia, which he hates. Plus Putin has little control over their private oil fields. Bloomberg yesterday described trying to curtail Russia’s oil capacity as herding cats. Current oil jump is just rich folk playing with the market. Making money as it goes up and then making money when it goes down. A lot of ordinary punters will get hurt on this one.
This week’s deal was just an Arab face saver. I used to work in that part of the world and face saving is big. Behind the scenes action is never reported as media has no access.
Good to read that someone with an Economics background is trying to capture nearly $0.5 Trillion less in GDP since 2014 and put that into human terms:
Earnings.
That lost GDP has to come from somewhere, and you show it.
Nicely done.
Probably why so many studies/statistics that show many Canadians being squeezed financially.
bsant
Far too many Boomer’s have a single asset strategy:
Real Estate.
The majority of them are approaching retirement age now and worried their single asset equity nest egg is evaporating. It is all the extra money they will have to enjoy retirement. This is because they have a cash flow problem, in terms of retirement income.
Google income distribution by age group (StatsCan 2014) and you will eventually find an Excel Spreadsheet for this that you can download.
You will then easily note the cashflow problem of retirement income (55-64 yrs old income vs. 65 yrs or older income). They will either sell and downsize or use their home equity as a personal ATM card.
You will then understand the RE obsession.
If you are a Millennial, read HERE what your future will look like with a single asset strategy and act accordingly, do what Garth suggests in terms of investing to avoid that ignominious end.
This is the ONLY REAL TIME news source where you will get the above truths, and more.
MSM rarely reports the truth or muck it up so badly you have to wonder if their collective IQ mathematically is < 100. They report everything they are told and do no checking of the facts, whatsoever.
Garth does and then reports back to us. Why I come here everyday.
bsant
#53 Fiendish Thingy on 12.01.16 at 9:15 pm
Thanks for the response! Yes, this is exactly what I am curious about.
My original thinking was if Vancouver RE continues its downward trend, and panic sets in, that it would drive sales UP in areas like Maple Ridge and Mission.
But that logic might only apply in a housing bubble near its peak.
You are describing the opposite during a correction… even FASTER deceleration in the burbs and connected areas. Which begins to make sense. Even outlying areas saw some big increases, and those people like others, want to cash in their tax free capital gain before it’s too late. With fewer buyers in the Mission market, it could happen.
https://www.zolo.ca/mission-real-estate/trends
18 months ago, I was looking in Mission at 3 Bedroom SFD in the $325K price range… today they go for $500K and up.
I’m hoping for more inventory in spring 2017. Rising rates on Dec 7th might be the tipping point.
Bond yields are backing up and the Fed will be raising its key rate in 13 days.
———————————————————————–
If Bond yields are backing up that means treasures are being sold. No one is interested in investing for ZIP with the Feds ZERP. There has to be some real fat fingers on the sell button to get rates moving like they have lately. Is the market fedup with Yellen, Draghi and Kuroda running the printing presses full throttle ?
#87 Ace Goodheart
”This proves that humans descended from monkeys and there’s still a lot of monkey left.
The bigger idiot……………”
————————————————————
I see the same thing happening in an area of Vancouver that I’ve been monitoring for over a year now. Very low supply and prices getting higher. Totally mind boggling. Places selling within a couple weeks of being listed.
Hi Garth, Everyone is so concerned with the price of our real estate. Yet, I have relatives who live in the San Francisco area who’s house is valued at over 5 million dollars and no one bats an eye. Apartments in NYC sell in the millions, no says anything. Why is their real estate different from ours. Isn’t it the market that drives the value of real estate. Thanks.
#94 paulo on 12.02.16 at 12:30 am
Im thinking the fed may do a catch up rise on Dec 14, what do you think about a .50 increase …….
———————————————————-
I’m thinking that there will not be an increase. The Fed will not want to undo the only thing their stimulus has been able to accomplish which is a rise in stocks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k
#77 cecilhenry — “‘Lean In’ and contribute to this?? NO WAY. NO. My only question: What can I do to actively STOP this involuntary subsidization of a parasitic system that is destroying my freedom, my life.”
Move to a place with less government, or none at all. The problem is, they aren’t the utopias you dream of. But you can help.
“Well, if you’re interested in 263 Wright, or taking over an A7 lease, leave your name with the blog concierge.”
WTF, Garth!?
‘Concierge’? Who it that? Another unpaid non-union position created without our consultation or approval?
STOP THE SCAB LABOUR ALREADY!!!
Doug, Ryan, and now a ‘concierge’?
Not on my watch!!!
You will be served notice shortly of impending union action.
Emma Zaun
Chief Steward – CUPE
(Canadian Union of Peelers and Exhibitionists)
Yeabut. What did they pay for it?? This means nothing in relation to the previous purchase price. Period.
Toronto market is still way up from a year ago – http://www.trebhome.com/market_news/release_market_updates/news2016/nr_market_watch_1116.htm
+32% for detached houses in 416, but ask Mark he’ll tell you the market has been flat and falling for the last 3 years :).
When this thing tumbles down it’s going to be epic, but not just yet.
I guess it’s really disheartening for the Toronto RE bears, to see yearly increases of 20-30%, but we are all grown-ups and we have to take responsibility for our financial choices.
I jogged by this house yesterday after a run in high park. There were three people standing outside in the sidewalk, and when I was approaching but still a few houses away, they all turned to look at me. The RE agent (I assume) was telling them that the park is close by and they can stay fit.
I’ll run by again tomorrow to see if the house has sold. If it has, I want my slice of the commission!
Great post today Garth. Real Estate posts/blog analysis is really what you shine at and you can really get a sense of that when you read them.
I’d like to see more.
Cecil and Freedom
There may be more of us out there than you think. I never married, retired mid 40’s, (over 10 years ago) now spend half a year in Muskoka other half travelling the world.
A chunk of my assets are abroad, where I pay very low taxes (think 0.25% property tax, 7% return on USD, no capital gains, 13% income tax)
A large part of the population still believes that governments create jobs and government spending is the answer to every problem, so I do my best to make sure they don’t do it with my money.
The ‘drop out’ or ‘on strike’ movement is just starting, but it’s nice to be ahead of the game. I think it will accelerate rapidly over the next decade.
Japan shows governments can survive debt levels far higher than I would have thought possible, so I don’t see the end of the party for the USA/Canada until government debt levels double again from here.
Trump will likely add about $8 trillion, maybe $10 trillion in debt over 8 years.
Whoever comes after will add another $10 to $15 in 8 years, and that should be the end.
So we still might have 10 to 15 years before the big reset.
I’ll be watching from an armchair in front of the fireplace.
Unemployment rate tumbles to 4.6%, lowest since August 2007… that’s a decade
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-payrolls-report-november-2016-130614643.html
The biggest economy in the world is leaving us in it’s dust
#58 InvestorsFriend on 12.01.16 at 9:30 pm
To tax is to steal?
Really? The fact is that in our system NO One EARNS anything all on their own. It’s a complex system of supply chain and distribution. Not to mention free education through grade 12 and subsidies after that. Government is an essential part of it. So are the banks.
Your wages are earned in a system where part of the deal is that some of your wages are taxed away.
If you paying a lot of taxes then you are benefiting greatly from the system. Be grateful.
The only thing worse than having to pay a lot of taxes is not having to.
And your taxes could be a lot higher. The fact is that corporate taxes in this country have been cut from about 48% circa 1990 to 25% today. And I believe personal tax rates have been higher in the past as well. That seldom gets a mention.
Even tax freedom day comes earlier in the year now than it used to (Sometime in early June?)
Perhaps our host, a former Revenue Minister can confirm.
___________________________________________
Yikes, this is some freshly waxed grade “A” bunk if I’ve ever heard it.
You sound very young – you’ve obviously been indoctrinated professionally. Son, do yourself a favour and just forget Obama’s bird-brained speech. Forget what your doorknob teacher taught you. These folks have heads filled with pink granite, don’t just gulp it down like that.
Lot’s of folks here have been around a while, never traded their frontal lobe in for a chunk of pig iron, and pretty much have the system figured out. I implore you, learn from them, and do so quickly.
#107 Serfin USA:- I never went to grade 12 in high school, but had the option to do so. I simply applied to University after completing grade 11 and was ready to party because was accepted. I went off the rolls of the government dime to pay some tuition. How could I ever forget the day marching into the high school office in the early summer informing them was not going to register and gave them all the finger.
#115 prairiegopher on 12.02.16 at 7:40 am
Hi Garth, Everyone is so concerned with the price of our real estate. Yet, I have relatives who live in the San Francisco area who’s house is valued at over 5 million dollars and no one bats an eye. Apartments in NYC sell in the millions, no says anything. Why is their real estate different from ours. Isn’t it the market that drives the value of real estate. Thanks.
______________________________
Probably been that way long enough that no one remembers regular folks ever living in these locations. It’s probably understood that “that’s where the rich folks live” and the regular working stiffs don’t even try.
Toronto house prices uppa, uppa. Experts say Mark has been wrong on this call for over 3 years. Even Ross Kay says “Mark is full of it”.
http://www.bnn.ca/toronto-home-prices-surge-over-20-as-frustrated-buyers-face-waning-supply-1.622003
#102 WUL now RIL on 12.02.16 at 1:10 am
FLOP:
Re: My Prospects as an An Attorney in Ont.
Nope. Better coin as a Registered Nurse in AB. Having needled hundreds of horses and bovines on the Great Plains, I have mastered “This won’t hurt a bit.” Mostly subcutaneous.
____________________________
I hear there are quite a few young Lawyers in Ontario still doing the moldy basement boogie. That’s one white collar profession that is going (getting?) to get as serious an arse kicking as any unskilled factory job.
Plus, Ontario is being eaten alive from the inside out – you don’t want to move here unless you are unemployable.
Overall Nov. 2016 JOB creation UP by about +11,000, unemployment DOWN by 0.2%.
Only bad news was more job losses in AB and Construction and Manufacturing jobs also losing ground (why I still say they should fire Poloz for trying to resuscitate a dead horse in Manufacturing).
Mostly Private Sector, Full-Time jobs created – too many jobs in the past year have been Part Time [McJobs], so this is VERY good news.
Maybe Canada has lot more ooompf than I have given her credit. I know, gratuitous, but go Canada, go.
bsant
“If Bond yields are backing up that means treasures are being sold.”
Indeed, the Obama had to finance a $2T deficit this year, and that’s a lot of treasury supply in a world where the traditional heavy buyers of US Treasuries, such as Saudi Arabia, and even China, have few US dollars with which to buy.
The question is, sure, the US dollar is somehow high at the moment, but will the US central bankers allow foreign USD$-denominated debt to go bad in a significant way and bring down the US banking system? What will happen when the market recognizes that there are some pretty significant losses in the portfolios of US financial institutions with rising interest rates? I think we’re setting up for a very, very interesting next year or two, and it seems to me that the significant bid under US “financial” stocks is completely and utterly irrational given what’s actually happening “on the ground”.
#85 RIL on 12.01.16 at 11:11 pm
Haven’t been there since about ’89. Should I visit again or has it all gone downhill? It would be interesting to meet a person who voted for Wynne for breakie at Bregman’s.
______________________________________
Toronto was great in the 80’s – preserve that memory – don’t visit.
Bregman’s is toast.
https://www.thestar.com/business/2007/01/05/bregmans_to_close_doors_after_28_years.html
Shared Services: Treasury Board opened the door to eventually allowing private sector firms such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft to perform the role of data centre.
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/government-email-project-pushed-out-to-2018
this was just so obvious!
by the way the US Government has also thought of this:
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/190333
the original justification for Shared Services was the yuge savings one could expect from consolidating 63 separate email systems into one! I worked at Agriculture Canada. Its email system worked fine, not perfectly but pretty good. Shared Services wanted to take it over promising reduced costs. Ridiculous! Annual budget for Shared Services is $1.4 billion ( billion with a B ) plus extras for this and for that.
Here it comes:
The nice big buying opportunity in Canadian Chartereds:
https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/12/02/national-bank-fourth-quarter-net-income-drops-11-per-cent-to-307m.html
https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/12/01/cibcs-exposure-to-real-estate-correction-is-highest-among-canadas-banks.html
Finally I will once again be able to increase my holdings in Canadian Chartered bank stocks. They have been ridiculously over priced for years. We are going to see a nice crash in value in the 2017 year. The idea is to figure out where the bottom is and buy when they get there. Then just ride them back up and enjoy the juicy dividends.
Mark, Mark, Mark…
#106 Mark on 12.02.16 at 1:30 am said:
“The 10-year yield is 2.44%. U.S bank shares are being bought like hot muffins.”
Completely irrational. The portfolios of the US banks are melting down with the higher interest rates, and people are buying bank shares on some sort of theory that the banks’ profits will increase? Absolutely freakin’ bizarre.
***************************************
Mark, newsflash. Banks and most companies have a stock price that reflects future earnings, not their balance sheet.
Banks don’t even have to mark their loan assets to market because they expect to collect the book value of those loans in any case.
You are wrong. U.S. bank shares rose this past few weeks because their earnings per share are quite rationally expected to rise as lending spreads rise and because they had been trading at low multiples of existing earnings. Banks are paying about zero on deposits.
As interest rates rise their spreads of interest rates charged minus interest rates collected will rise.
Most of your posts seem designed more to impress than to share knowledge. It’s not working.
But please go ahead and short these U.S. banks to show the courage of your convictions.
I wonder, if whoever bought the house in the earlier this year, why are they selling it so soon? If they didn’t really want the house, why did they buy it in the first place? Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that if you buy a house you should be planning to stay there for many years.
#78 Damifino on 12.01.16 at 10:50 pm
Here’s some more quick math. $1.4 invested with an average return of 6% annually gets you $7000/mo indefinitely.
Think 6% is too much to hope for? Then how about even 4% which yields $4666/mo forever. Add on CPP and OAP and you’ll be flying, slim!
Plus, your heirs will take over a nice lump of liquid wealth and not a moldy 60-year-old house full of worthless crap they’ll have to pay someone to cart away. Win-win.
_____________________________________
That’s my kind of math :). The wife and I have been doing some long range financial planning lately and we like the idea of setting up the two heirs to be. It would be an interesting project to see how many generations an immigrant family needs to produce offspring that don’t need to work. That could be our grandkids if our kids are smart (and they are).
I can live cheap, real cheap – and love it. You think Scotsmen are cheap-asses? You ain’t seen nothing. I plan on saving the same as I am now till death – while on CPP/OAS and not drawing down the investments at all.
I think the kiddies are going to need it, they will benefit from it much more than I will. We’ve never had to suffer much financial hardship thus far. Trudeau is ensuring taxes will increase to the point where folks will say the heck with working – these folks will be in my kids age group. I think the plans laid now for the kids of the future by the parents of the present is going to divide the classes down the road more than ever before.
@jane24, post #109:
If you are right about oil prices then I’m glad I sold off some of my XEG for a tidy profit.
Are Treasury Bonds Being Sold?
#113 Doghouse Dweller on 12.02.16 at 7:20 am responded:
Bond yields are backing up and the Fed will be raising its key rate in 13 days.
———————————————————————–
If Bond yields are backing up that means treasures are being sold. No one is interested in investing for ZIP with the Feds ZERP.
*****************************************
Every Treasury that was sold must have had a buyer, so someone wanted it.
Investors as a population are not and cannot in the aggregate sell treasuries or any other kind of bonds, since every sale involvers a buyer. At any point in time actual buyers and sellers must equal.
What IS happening is that bond prices were bid down.
SOME investors are selling treasuries to others. The same was true when Treasury prices were rising. Sellers always balance buyers and the price moves to make it so.
The notion that investors in aggregate are selling bonds reminds me of a quote from Yoggi Berra:
To wit: “No one goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”
Interesting article as to what people are really up to in terms of purchasing houses in Toronto:
http://torontolife.com/real-estate/how-private-lenders-and-debt-crazed-homebuyers-are-pushing-torontos-real-estate-market-to-the-brink/
Just reading this blog back a few months as I’m bored and my vacation destination got cancelled due to an outbreak of a tropical disease (I was like, I’m going anyway, but I’m married and the lady is a l little more concerned than I am with catching stuff like that).
I still disagree on the whole sell your house and invest mantra. We own our Toronto house (detached, 3bdrm and parking for one car). I have done the math so I know how much it costs to live here. All together with property taxes, utilities and insurance we pay just over $600.00 per month to live in a large detached house with a big backyard and a parking spot, walking distance to transit, south of Highway 401 in the 416.
That $600.00 per month does not have to be worked for. I actually derive that from an investment portfolio that includes REITs, ETFs, and dividend stocks.
So the house really is free.
What I always see here is to the effect that the house is not free, because it could be sold and then we could invest what it is likely worth, and collect more distributions, dividends and capital gains and the like.
That is the one thing here that I continue to disagree with. Totally understand telling people not to get themselves underwater in houses. But when you actually are able to live in a house for free, why sell it?
A Banking NonSequitor
Mark said:
If low rates have created champagne times for the banks, it logically follows that higher rates will create quite the opposite — times of profound weakness, falling asset values, and compressed margins.
************************************
The problem here is the “IF”.
Declining interest rates were correlated with rising bank shares but that does not prove causation.
Predictions are difficult, especially when they involve the future.
#140 Ace Goodheart on 12.02.16 at 11:19 am
________________________________________
“Sell and invest.”
I also have a paid off house and live for about the same as you – it’s cheaper than rent. Passive income pays all of it and then some if I so desired. My house is worth about what it should be in a regular market – so no outrageous gain in selling. My house will undoubtedly appreciate into the future at the same steady rate it has in the past.
Your house in the 416 is probably worth 4-5X what you paid right now. This may not be the case in the future. Your house will likely lose value over the next decade or more. Eventually it will be at regular market value just like mine.
So you have a decision to make:
1. Make hay while the sun is shining.
2. Who cares about the hay, I’ll bring it in when I’m ready even if it’s raining cats and dogs.
I’m in a regular market where selling makes no sense. You live in a market where you have an option I don’t, lock in those gains and make other living arrangements such to preserve said gains. We both live cheaper than rent, but you do have the potential to make bank due to your location.
If I were in your shoes, I suspect it would not take too much effort to find a way to live on less than just the interest paid on the proceeds of your house sale in the same area where you currently live. If you are somehow in your 20’s with a paid off house, then I may hold off, but if you are 35+ it’s a sin not to thoroughly investigate this once in a lifetime option that will soon be slipping through your fingers.
A Bulldozer talks taxes
Number 125 who names himself after a1960’s bulldozer said to me”
You sound very young – you’ve obviously been indoctrinated professionally.
****************************************
Not young at 56. I likely pay considerably more tax than the bulldozer. I am grateful to be in the position to do so. And I take ownership of my own thoughts. I am not indoctrinated. I am trying to indoctrinate others to think better. You’re welcome.
#134 Ace Goodheart
”The idea is to figure out where the bottom is and buy when they get there. Then just ride them back up and enjoy the juicy dividends.”
————————————————
Buy after a 25% correction from this point or when RBC is back to $65. Within the next 6 months.
#140 Ace Goodheart:- Your home area is not the best location and you too will take a hit losing tax free dollars. Just think of the dead equity in your home not earning cash flow all year round. You could be living in a high rise apartment living for free in a better location with additional savings to be invested with regard to income taxes payable. How about living for free with additional funds filling up your bank account as your home doesn’t write out a pay cheque.
Concierge? Hire them in Toronto.
http://theconciergeclub.ca
Hold on to your pacemakers boomers.
US unemployment down to 4.6% and 175k jobs created. Up she goes on Dec 13th.
#145 Context on 12.02.16 at 12:09 pm
#140 Ace Goodheart:- Your home area is not the best location and you too will take a hit losing tax free dollars. Just think of the dead equity in your home not earning cash flow all year round. You could be living in a high rise apartment living for free in a better location with additional savings to be invested with regard to income taxes payable. How about living for free with additional funds filling up your bank account as your home doesn’t write out a pay cheque.
————————————————————–
Life is not all about making money. Have seen many who had become very wealthy lose it all because there was never enough. Lust for more money when you have more than you need can be as bad as lusting for a house when you have no money. If your health turns on you all of a sudden, you will realize what is more important in life. Many have discovered this also.
Things are moving the right direction, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
First, no developed country has raised interest rates yet and, as I keep pointing out on here, there is zero appetite to raise rates here in Canada. Zero. Garth is right on many things, but he has been (and continues to be) wrong on rates. The trend in Canada remains low for longer.
2) Van real estate prices have stalled and are down compared a few months ago, but they are still way way up over any time period longer than that. So let’s wait to see what happens in the Spring before we pop the champagne.
3) Despite what Garth keeps saying, preferred shares have been a terrible investment YTD relative to the broader TSX index. They’ve returned about the same as uni bonds despite the higher risk profile. If rates stay close to where they are preferreds are going to remain a poor vehicle.
#108 Freedom First on 12.02.16 at 2:11 am
#77 cecilhenry
Yes. The last paragraph of your comment is bang on. Men in Japan, USA, and much of the free world have noticed for quite a while what you are now catching onto.
Especially Japan, but the idea is the same. Many young men are refusing to work themselves to death as their fathers did. They are living minimalist, not getting married, and refusing to father children. The Japanese Government is in a panic. Many men world wide are walking away. ”
Totally flawed analysis….it is actually the women in Japan who are either forging marriage and staying at home with the parents as “parasite” singles (theri word not mine)
Japanese men are going further afield to hunt down brides such as Vietnam, Cambodia etc
Don’t believe me? Read the links below!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_single
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_foreign_marriage
A couple of amuse-bouches from these links
“In recent years rural Japanese men have begun taking foreign brides as a way of countering the reduced number of women who are of marriageable, childbearing age that are willing to marry rural Japanese men. ”
“Japanese women
A growing number of young women are remaining unmarried in Japan today, a development often viewed as a rebellion against the traditional confines of women’s restrictive roles as wives and mothers. In 2004, 54% of Japanese women in their 20s were still single, while only 30.6% were single in 1985.[1]
Young women are instead indulging in lifestyles centered on friends, work, and spending disposable income; unmarried Japanese adults typically live with their parents, thus saving on household expenses and increasing the amount of money available to spend on their own entertainment”
#140 Ace Goodheart on 12.02.16 at 11:19 am
isnt’ that toronto life article over a year old?
Northern Bear Golf Course, 40 km out of Edmonton in Sherwood Park, is on the chopping block, in receivership.
Toronto house prices uppa, uppa. Experts say Mark has been wrong on this call for over 3 years. Even Ross Kay says “Mark is full of it”.
unfortunately true. toronto real estate prices are crazy. when u think they can’t get any higher, they do
just ask for data, and he’ll go away. very simple
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/housing-market-hot-1471648/27/#p18696793
#104 Mark on 12.02.16 at 1:20 am
BTW everyone, I’m thinking of organizing a coffee meetup downtown YVR on a Sunday afternoon in January. Anyone interested in meeting the famous Mark?
///////////////////////////////
Thanks for letting me know Mark Cuban is coming to town…
M42BC
#43 nonplused on 12.01.16 at 8:24 pm
“…Land transfer taxes must be against the constitution somehow.”
———————————————————-
Interesting theory, but I doubt it could be challenged.
Property ownership was never entrenched in the Constitution.
BUT yesterday’s announcement by a bank (TD?) that rental properties–during mortgage renewals–would attract higher rates is definitely discriminatory, and smacks of a lack of procedural fairness.
Think about that.
The owner is responsible for the debt, and it matters not one pigeon’s poop whether the owner–or a tenant–occupies it.
@104 Mark-
Can I bring my scroll wheel?
i don’t watch tv much , but keep hearing about the re-do of the ‘gilmore girls’.
all i can think of is that ppl in the show were very, very old back in the 90’s. how can they even be alive to remake the show? didn’t bea arthur die?
further anyone who ever watched that show is prob not alive anymore either.
why a remake?
WULLY,on second thoughts leave the Dell at home and take the Husqvarna with you.
Might help cut through all the bureaucracy…
M42BC
#140 Ace Goodheart on 12.02.16 at 11:19 am
“…So the house really is free….”
“…But when you actually are able to live in a house for free, why sell it?”
No one says you HAVE TO sell it, but you have a CHOICE. You appear to not understand that choice, so I will take the bait and try to help.
First, let’s ASSUME these points: If you sold, you would clear $1m (easy for math – put your real number in if you like) and let’s use the conservative 5% for investment returns and let’s assume you are reasonably well employed and pay 40% tax rate. Then, exclusive of other assets (that we can ignore for now) your net worth is $1m house + $250k investment (where you get 5% yielding $7500 a year after tax to pay for house now). The investment never grows (all you make goes to house), so your net worth tracks house value. Let’s call this current state OPTION 1.
OPTION 2 happens if you (or another person in this situation) sells the house and invests at the same net of 5%. Then your $1m invested will give you $30k a year after taxes (we assume no tax bracket change to do the math). You now have $37,500 to spend on housing, which is over $3k a month, and anything you do not spend adds to your net worth (still $1.25m at time of sale) which is no longer dependent on house values.
OPTION 1 has the house with the yard in your location (not really monetary, but potential good reasons to stay), but tracks the housing market, both up and down. With the current state of things, there is unlikely to be much “up” for a few years in housing.
OPTION 2 has both the freedom and the cash flow to choose from many alternate choices, but tracks the stock market, both up and down.
Which OPTION makes the most sense for any individual depends on their circumstances.
Also, if you are mid-forties, and have another ~$750k+ hidden away, then you close to ‘passing’ Garth’s rule of 90. If you are older and or do not have that other stash, then in Garth’s view, you are house heavy in your assets.
So, your house is not really ‘free’ to keep, but perhaps you are content to stay with OPTION 1, especially since you have no mortgage. It is certainly a far better option than most have available to choose from.
#139 InvestorsFriend
The central banks have been buying just about everything out there with digital vapour Dollars, Yen and Euros.
Its not the debt slave Canuks nor the record 91 million, not in the labour force food stamp Americans, the cashless Indians or the
countless unemployed Europeans. All the stats show that just about
everyone is dead broke except for the 1% blogdogs .Trade is way down and there are continuous global layoffs.
It`s not as simple as I have to buy what you have to sell. When you run
the global printing press you can buy everything for nothing.
Works great while it lasts !
Bear Market in Golf Courses?
#152 Barb on 12.02.16 at 1:01 pm
Northern Bear Golf Course, 40 km out of Edmonton in Sherwood Park, is on the chopping block, in receivership.
***************************************
40km out you say. That is part of the reason.
I wonder who they owe money to.
Unfortunately for their competitors the course is unlikely to close. Instead likely to open again with new owners and less debt.
It’s the circle of life for such assets.
#155 Barb:- In the past a rental type of property was never the same as owner occupied and why should it? The banks always charged a higher rate so home ownership got a pass over the years for a higher risk. No discrimination, but a lack of procedure in order to generate more business is what took place.
#148 Ronaldo: – It was just an option for consideration, so let him keep his home in good health and be happy. There is another thing that money won’t buy that you missed, and its poverty which sucks.
#136 Doug “Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that if you buy a house you should be planning to stay there for many years.”
A: SPECULATION….?
#138 Doug “@jane24, post #109:
If you are right about oil prices”
Bet the bank. what could possibly go wrong? Jane has been a tremendous asset to folks who dont need actual facts or data….
Re: #159 Steve:
“So, your house is not really ‘free’ to keep, but perhaps you are content to stay with OPTION 1, especially since you have no mortgage. It is certainly a far better option than most have available to choose from.”
Yes for various reasons option #1 is better.
A few of those reasons are:
– They don’t tax capital gains on real estate until you sell it. And there is still an exemption for a primary residence. However, all other capital gains are taxed. So you do lose money when your investments increase in value, unless they are either a house, or in some form of tax free vehicle (beware of RRSPs, they turn into RIFs at a certain age and they you get screwed over every year thereafter, both in taxes and also in loss of CPP and OAS).
– owning a house doesn’t disqualify you for CPP and OAS. Owning an investment portfolio (especially if it happens to be in an RRSP) often does.
-You can live in a house. You can’t live in a million dollars worth of stocks, bonds and ETFs. This is important. If you are going to put your need for year round shelter in the form of an investment, you have to be very, very careful that you understand inflation and its effect on asset value. Not all investment instruments will match inflation rates all of the time. The house will always be there, and will always provide adequate housing. The investments may not.
-amateur “investor” landlords. I don’t need to say anything else on that point….
-a general lack of the kind of rental housing I would actually want to live in (see above).
-I kind of like renovating. Don’t want to ask permission to put a balcony out back or install a hot tub. Every few years I tear something apart and rebuild it.
-I don’t care about “net worth”. I think it’s a stupid concept. I don’t know why people pay so much attention to it. It does nothing for you. If anything, you become attractive as a taxation target. There is no beneficial reason to being “high net worth”. The less everyone knows about how much you could sell your stuff for, the better.
-I kind of hate my family. Don’t want to leave them anything. We have a special plan for the event of our death which involves charities. Again, the less everyone knows about that, the better.
Trumpster’s hired this dude to de-regulate the US residential mortgage industry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Mnuchin
“I know what it takes to make sure that we can make loans to small and midmarket companies and that’s going to be our big focus, making sure we scale back regulation so that we make sure the banks are lending.”
So perhaps the US housing market’s “roar back into life” is going to be more of a pop? This should be interesting. The last time the US deregulated, they almost collapsed the global financial system.
#143 InvestorsFriend on 12.02.16 at 11:57 am
A Bulldozer talks taxes
Number 125 who names himself after a1960’s bulldozer said to me”
You sound very young – you’ve obviously been indoctrinated professionally.
****************************************
Not young at 56. I likely pay considerably more tax than the bulldozer. I am grateful to be in the position to do so. And I take ownership of my own thoughts. I am not indoctrinated. I am trying to indoctrinate others to think better. You’re welcome.
——
50’s. Track loader actually. Bought it for .10/lb, no taxes paid.
Indeed, I agree you will likely pay more taxes than I.
US economy is sailing along. More people employed and less people seeing unemployment benefits
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-jobs-report-november-2016-2016-12
This should win an award!
https://twitter.com/SteveSaretsky/status/804769794243207168
#150 hero tanaka on 12.02.16 at 12:52 pm
The “grass eating men” of Japan are a well documented phenomena. Eat veggies, play video games, no marriage, job, or sex on the menu.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbivore_men
#150 hero tanaka
Yes. The media/system/women are hiding the truth. Not just in Japan, but everywhere else.
Men are opting out. It can’t be the system or the women’s fault.
And Hillary lost. In spite of all the media backing.
Realtors are proven liars. The fact they refuse to open up mls so the numbers can be validated is proof their numbers are bunk. Happy Housing Crash Everyone! :-)
#157 bdwy sktrn on 12.02.16 at 1:26 pm
Re: Gilmore Girls…
Bdwy… you’re obviously a dude. You wouldn’t appreciate girls strolling around quintessential small town America with no agenda, carrying empty take out coffee cups while exchanging rapid fire witty banter. Yeah, it’s 1000% chick show.
I only know because I used to watch it with my ex-girlfriend. It was torture. I admit I had a hard time keeping up.
#43 nonplussed #50cecilhenry And yet Scandianvian countries get the highest scores in terms of resident happiness and are taxed much higher. The fact is we are not “overtaxed” as the MiniTrumps like to complain. Her in BC we just got a new Skytrain extension, further infrastructure projects are on the way. I would rather that money go to projects like this that benefit everyone, rather than some guy having more cash for hookers and blow.