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Vancouver Off-Topic / Current EventsThe off-topic forum for Vancouver, funnies, non-auto centered discussions, WORK SAFE. While the rules are more relaxed here, there are still rules. Please refer to sticky thread in this forum.
I'd prefer an average property price of $400,000 over any sort of taxes earned for my government as it's money I actually save in my pocket as opposed to used for Translink executive pay.
Whichita Kansas however, may be in your price range, get this 2200 sq foot rancher for a mere $159,000. A price for which you could not build the house for, neither here nor there.
Notice a trend? -everywhere- in Canada is "expensive" if you cant afford 500k minimum.
i'm not trying to be a big Vancouver homer or anything but honestly the vast majority of people who complain about the cost of living have their heads in the clouds in regards to the general pricing throughout Canada.
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Dank memes cant melt steel beams
Last edited by Hondaracer; 05-22-2015 at 03:39 PM.
what do you expect the government to do? everytime a government has intervened in that manner, they've created a number of other unforeseen problems.
Anything they do creates a number of unforeseen problems. It's their job as policy makers to choose the best option. Now what Vancity's report says is pretty serious, we all knew it was going to happen and this is more evidence that it will happen. A trashed economy is not as good as less Asian investment.
American immigration policies are tough I couldn't relocate to the states. I'd like to live in another comparable city to Vancouver, in Canada where you will find that very same property and many much nicer properties for much less than you would in Vancouver.
I'd like to live in another comparable city to Vancouver, in Canada
I'd like my cock to jizz out Ferraris driven by supermodels who give birth to satchels full of money and rare gemstones, but it is pretty unlikely to happen
i find it crazy that some of u dont think its absurd that foreigners are buying their way into a city that my generation, my parents generation, and some of our grandparents generation has built with our tax dollars. Now some, if not most of us are being squeezed out of this city to have a foreigner reap the rewards of the city it took decades to build just because they have money to do so.
Ya but your ancestors got the land for next to nothing.
__________________ Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
I'd like my cock to jizz out Ferraris driven by supermodels who give birth to satchels full of money and rare gemstones, but it is pretty unlikely to happen
That's why I have not left yet. I rent because it's the smart thing to do here but I'd rather own a home. If the govt raises taxes to pay for Translink, that would tip the scale for me.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by multicartual
I love the bipolar weather and day / night cycles of Vancouver!
This place fucking rocks... you just need the cash to enjoy it!
Those without money ALWAYS hate it here.
People make it seem way more expensive than it is. Right now my wife is a full time student who works MAYBE enough to cover half the rent each month. I make a reasonable wage. We live 5 blocks from the ocean, have a car thats paid for, eat good food, and mean really fucking good, for every meal, snowboard whenever we want to in whistler, drink every weekend, take trips when we feel like it, dress nicely and have a pretty big chunk of money in our bank account (think enough for a down payment on a reasonable place for us.)
The problem isn't making too little money, its that people are genuinely retarded with what they think they need to buy. People borrow so much, and carry all this debt, and are basically paying 1.19x what everything they buy costs because they visa it, and visa it again and again just so they can have it now instead of a couple months from now. These are the same people thinking they DESERVE a house, not a condo, but a house in Vancouver. There are plenty of ways to live in this city relatively well if you don't live beyond your means, and the sooner people realize that, the sooner they can be happy. There is nothing wrong with renting until you are 30, 40, or even the rest of your life if you invest the money you make properly and intelligently. The reason that owning a home used to be a measure of wealth is that no one understood other types of investment. Generations before us banked on their homes as a nest egg, retirement fund, etc. Get with the fucking times people. Homeownership is no longer the be all and end all measure of becoming a successful grown up. The sooner everyone realizes it, the sooner out economy can stop hinging on it, and the real estate prices can come back down to earth. Its called fucking supply and demand. Stop demanding it when you can't reasonably attain it.
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98 technoviolet M3/2/5
Quote:
Originally Posted by boostfever
Westopher is correct.
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Originally Posted by fsy82
seems like you got a dick up your ass well..get that checked
Quote:
Originally Posted by punkwax
Well.. I’d hate to be the first to say it, but Westopher is correct.
Anything they do creates a number of unforeseen problems. It's their job as policy makers to choose the best option. Now what Vancity's report says is pretty serious, we all knew it was going to happen and this is more evidence that it will happen. A trashed economy is not as good as less Asian investment.
Exactly -- it's the government's job to choose the best option that provides the best welfare of the citizens. And those who are in the position to do so are handsomely paid to make those decisions. Given the cruddy policies we have been seeing, I think it's fair to say they haven't been doing their jobs well.
i find it crazy that some of u dont think its absurd that foreigners are buying their way into a city that my generation, my parents generation, and some of our grandparents generation has built with our tax dollars. Now some, if not most of us are being squeezed out of this city to have a foreigner reap the rewards of the city it took decades to build just because they have money to do so.
One could reasonably argue that it was foreign money that made the GVRD into the ideal place it is today, especially in the late 80's and early 90's, and the late 90's to the present. Until relatively recently, Richmond was mostly farmland, and Vancouver (DT and Metro) were factories and other industrial properties. It wasn't until after Expo '86 that both domestic and foreign developers started seeing the possibilities that were hidden.
Anything they do creates a number of unforeseen problems. It's their job as policy makers to choose the best option. Now what Vancity's report says is pretty serious, we all knew it was going to happen and this is more evidence that it will happen. A trashed economy is not as good as less Asian investment.
We could continue to still have the foreign investment. Australia has restrictions on their RE for foreigners, and their housing market hasn't crashed. RE still went up, it's just not increasing at the crazy rate we are in Vancouver. China is creating more millionaires at an alarming pace. They will continue to move their money overseas to safe havens.
To make sure things don't get too out of hand. (ie. average house in Vancouver costing $1.3 million or so.)
We just need to put some restrictions. Plus taxing or restricting it can allows us to collect more tax dollars to spend on infrastructure/health care etc.
Melbourne, Australia is doing extra taxes to foreigners and they estimate to raise $300 million dollars a year.
Foreign investment review board data shows about 40% of new residential properties in metropolitan Melbourne go to overseas buyers with foreigners pouring about $14b into Victorian property last year, Pallas said.
People are saying that on the west side of Vancouver, more than 50% of transactions are going to mainland chinese people. Metrotown area the two main buyers are EI buying land to build a house to sell to mainlanders. Or mainlanders buying new houses or teardowns and then building a giant mansion.
Because Vancouver offers a lot of things to Asian investors that other cities don't:
- Reasonable Canadian immigration policies
- Proximity to Asia and air links to China
- Very established Chinese ex-pat/ethnic enclave
- Generous social programs for their children and relatives
- Clean air and a slower pace of life
You forgot that you don't need to learn english as all the signs are in chinese.
One could reasonably argue that it was foreign money that made the GVRD into the ideal place it is today, especially in the late 80's and early 90's, and the late 90's to the present. Until relatively recently, Richmond was mostly farmland, and Vancouver (DT and Metro) were factories and other industrial properties. It wasn't until after Expo '86 that both domestic and foreign developers started seeing the possibilities that were hidden.
I'd say the difference is, immigrants from the 90's were far more willing to embrace the Canadian way of life than the immigrants we see today. The 90's immigrants certainly brought their customs and languages and ethnic preferences to Vancouver, but at they same time, they try to at least partly integrate into the mainstream Canadian cultures. Our parents watched hockey and cheered on Team Canada. They took us on road trips and did the Canadian stuff. They still took us to dim sum on Sundays, but they'd take us to have steak as well. Most important of all, they identified themselves as Canadian, not another ethnic group with a Canadian passport.
I can't say I know Vancouver's current immigrants nearly as well as the immigrants from the 90's, but from my experience, I don't find them identifying themselves as Canadians nearly as much as the immigrants from the past.
Um, the difference is other world class cities like San Francisco, New York, Hong Kong (okay, maybe not Hong Kong) have huge economies with career opportunities that ALLOW people to afford those prices. Compare Vancouver and Toronto and tell me how many people who are buying condos/houses are doing it with money they made in their respective cities.
FYI: There are plenty of places with better career prospects than Vancouver and without the terrible ratio of salary to living expenses. Toronto and Seattle immediately come to mind. Austin, TX is also quickly becoming a place that young people want to go to.
I don't know why you keep bringing up places like Nice and Florence; they are totally not comparable to Vancouver at all. They're basically resort or retirement places for wealthy people. It's like asking why anyone wants to pay so much to live in the Hamptons. If you are insinuating that Vancouver is going to become a place for wealthy people to move to with the entire economy built around serving them then, yes, I agree!
What amuses me is that everyone seems to brush Vancouver with the same brush as New York SF, etc., when it comes to being out priced for the typical young family/couple/bachelor/etc.
A couple things... Vancouver, just like New York and the like, isn't just ONE section of downtown. Vancouver, NYC, SF, et al all are made up of different districts and areas. Manhattan, Queens, Long Beach, Lynbrook all have different price points, just like how Gastown, Coal Harbour, UBC Endowment Lands and East Hastings also have different prices. No, someone earning below a certain dollar value isn't going to rent or own in Coal Harbour, but neither is someone in the same situation going to buy an apartment a block away from the NYSE. That said, you can find decently priced apartment units all over New York, even in high end places like Tribeca, Two Bridges and SoHo. No, they're not fully lavished buildings, but they allow you to live close to work, even if you're not a 1%'er. Mind you, even though New York is built on the edge of an ocean just like Vancouver, NY doesn't have mountains to contain it's sprawl. More land means more properties, which in turn can help with housing prices.
I'd say the difference is, immigrants from the 90's were far more willing to embrace the Canadian way of life than the immigrants we see today. The 90's immigrants certainly brought their customs and languages and ethnic preferences to Vancouver, but at they same time, they try to at least partly integrate into the mainstream Canadian cultures. Our parents watched hockey and cheered on Team Canada. They took us on road trips and did the Canadian stuff. They still took us to dim sum on Sundays, but they'd take us to have steak as well. Most important of all, they identified themselves as Canadian, not another ethnic group with a Canadian passport.
I can't say I know Vancouver's current immigrants nearly as well as the immigrants from the 90's, but from my experience, I don't find them identifying themselves as Canadians nearly as much as the immigrants from the past.
I grew up in South Langley in an area that was extremely white washed. We had one non-white kid and that was because she was an exchange student from Japan. I was never directly affected as a kid by the influx of a foreign population and their investments. Well, apart from the weekly dinner trip into Vancouver to the China Kitchen restaurant. It wasn't until the late 90's, when I was finally able to drive and explore the GVRD on my own that I got to start experiencing different cultures and how they interacted with the "white people."
I wont say that everyone I met at that point were first generation immigrants, mostly because I had no idea if they were or not, but looking back now there seems to be an element of truth to what you're saying. Even though immigrants tend to flock to their own kind when moving to a new country, there seemed to be a bigger effort to assimilate into the larger population pool. Whether that meant having dinner at Sizzler or cheering for the Canucks, it didn't matter. Even when the language barrier reared it's head, there was still that feeling you'd both share when you're both celebrating Bure scoring that breakaway goal during the Stanley Cup.
But that's because any first generation moving to a new country wants to be able to feel that they fit in and are accepted.
These days there are already fully established neighbourhoods where you can move to and not even bother learning the local language. I'd like to point out that this isn't a Vancouver-specific thing. Every major city that's an immigration hub has the exact same issue (even a city like New York has Little Italy where you'll find people who speak only Italian and nothing else, as well as Curry Hill where some people speak only a specific South Asian language). Hell, even in countries like Germany you can move to a part of one of many cities and get by purely on English alone and not have to worry about a single lick of German. So, no, it's not like it's some cultural phenomenon restricted only to BC. That said, because these neighbourhoods exist, it allows people to move to a new country and not be bothered to continue on with the work that the earlier immigrants did. Why bother learning English, German, Hindi or Cantonese when you can live in an area where you only need your native language and nothing else?
But, going back to my original point is that for someone like myself, who grew up away from different cultures, even I can see that there's definitely a different change in attitude of certain cultures in the last twenty years when it comes to new immigrants.
Except Indians. I don't think I've ever seen people from a specific country try to be more Canadian than even native Canadians. During both the Olympics and Stanley Cup Finals, I couldn't have asked to be visiting friends in a better city than Surrey. Freakin' amazing.
People make it seem way more expensive than it is. Right now my wife is a full time student who works MAYBE enough to cover half the rent each month. I make a reasonable wage. We live 5 blocks from the ocean, have a car thats paid for, eat good food, and mean really fucking good, for every meal, snowboard whenever we want to in whistler, drink every weekend, take trips when we feel like it, dress nicely and have a pretty big chunk of money in our bank account (think enough for a down payment on a reasonable place for us.)
You have 0 children/dependants and are probably under the age of 35. If your woman wants no kids, you are home free. Go snowboarding and make it rain!
When her tits and face start to sag and your friends start popping out kids, she'll want to join that train. Add extra mouths to feed that do not earn an income and will not for at least 15 years. Diapers, childcare, swimming lessons, community soccer and your drinking and snowboarding life will be gone. Still think you'll be able to afford to live by the beach or buy that 911 you've been lusting after? I've lived in Vancouver my whole life, if there is one thing to be certain of, its the age of the renters in Kits will always be under 35.
Willing to sell a family member for a few minutes on RS
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Well kids are in the cards in hopefully maybe 5 years. She's a few years younger so the rush isn't there. That said, with 4 years of her working before that happens at 75-80k a year does a lot for our situation. Maybe we won't be able to live here anymore, but that is our choice by having kids. We don't have the "right" to live in the most expensive real estate in Canada. That said, the drinking is going to end because I will have more important things to attend to, like the kid, but the snowboarding will still be happening with a little board added to the roof rack of the 911. Thats the way life works, you adapt to your situation. If that adaption is moving, so be it, but I'm not incredibly worried. Its far from impossible. There are always options, and none of those involve just complaining.
__________________
98 technoviolet M3/2/5
Quote:
Originally Posted by boostfever
Westopher is correct.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fsy82
seems like you got a dick up your ass well..get that checked
Quote:
Originally Posted by punkwax
Well.. I’d hate to be the first to say it, but Westopher is correct.
I'd like my cock to jizz out Ferraris driven by supermodels who give birth to satchels full of money and rare gemstones, but it is pretty unlikely to happen
not sure if it's the craft beer i've been drinking tonight, but your posts on this page are gold
not sure if it's the craft beer i've been drinking tonight, but your posts on this page are gold
Thanks!
We should all take the time to acknowledge that Vancouver has helped a great community like Revscene happen, bridging together men and women of many different backgrounds over a common interest. This group of people on RS are a good representation of many different subcultures and yet almost all of us get along, which at the end of the day reflects great on Vancouverites.
I used to read many different forums growing up and in many places in the US, car forum members would beef and get in physical fights, some forums shut down meet-ups due to all of the meatheads wanting to punch each other up!
Here? Pretty laid back, we just have to worry about nammer scammers and 14 dolla ballas.
American immigration policies are tough I couldn't relocate to the states. I'd like to live in another comparable city to Vancouver, in Canada where you will find that very same property and many much nicer properties for much less than you would in Vancouver.
Please tell me where is comparable to BC yet significantly cheaper. Alberta has nothing to do, Sask has even less, Manitoba is full of bugs, Ontario you either freeze to death or get heatstroke, Quebec is french, the Maritimes are gorgeous but there's no work and the Territories barely exist.
Depending on what you want to do with your life there's always a few places you can pick from but generally speaking the reason BC is more expensive is because it's actually worth living in. Of course if you don't do anything outside your house and don't give a fuck about what's around you the possibilities are endless.
__________________ 1991 Toyota Celica GTFour RC // 2007 Toyota Rav4 V6 // 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee
1992 Toyota Celica GT-S ["sold"] \\ 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD [sold] \\ 2000 Jeep Cherokee [sold] \\ 1997 Honda Prelude [sold] \\ 1992 Jeep YJ [sold/crashed] \\ 1987 Mazda RX-7 [sold] \\ 1987 Toyota Celica GT-S [crushed]
Quote:
Originally Posted by maksimizer
half those dudes are hotter than ,my GF.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RevYouUp
reading this thread is like waiting for goku to charge up a spirit bomb in dragon ball z
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Originally Posted by Good_KarMa
OH thank god. I thought u had sex with my wife. :cry:
Here's an opinion piece from the Vancouver Courier today:
Spoilered for length.
Spoiler!
Quote:
Government intervention unlikely in Vancouver real estate market
If you have noticed a persistent ringing in your ears lately, take heart as we all are hearing it. It is the sound of government cash registers as they rake in revenue from Vancouver’s record-breaking real estate market.
What you will certainly not hear above the din is any politician saying they will make any changes that could risk driving down housing prices. That is because they are too dependent on the dollars it brings into government coffers.
In you still think that an elected official will come to the rescue of those trying to buy into Vancouver’s hyper-inflated single-family housing market, please note the following.
There are 757 million reasons why the B.C. government will not intervene. That figure represents the total the amount in dollars the government raised in property transfer taxes in the last fiscal year. Buying and selling homes is big business in B.C., and that figure could go as high as $1 billion if 2015 sales projections hold.
There are nearly 1.9 billion reasons why Mayor Gregor Robertson will keep his mouth zipped over double-digit property assessment increases across our city. The City of Vancouver issued $1.88-billion worth of residential permits in 2014. Overall this represents a 77 per cent increase over 2008.
The mayor is consistent in his view that he thinks the city is cash-starved — so why would he dare to turn off the flow of revenue home-building provides? One might surmise then that Robertson’s talk about housing affordability is as empty as the homes he wants citizens to report on a snitch website.
Then there is the thorny politics of home prices. If you are in the market already as a homeowner, chances are you are praying that your real estate investment will continue to appreciate. Many of us lament the loss of affordability, but none of us are likely to respond by selling to the lowest bidder.
Furthermore, homeowners are more likely to vote, and if their home price drops because of political intervention, you can kiss their support goodbye at election time.
Some assert that as long as home prices continue to rise, politicians at city hall have job security. They point to the last time Vancouver experienced any prolonged property price depreciation in 1999 to 2002. It was during that time that the incumbent NPA council was routed by Larry Campbell and COPE.
Rest assured that our mayor and council understand there are political consequences for putting the squeeze on home price values.
This does not mean elected officials are impervious to pressure from citizens. Tens of thousands have already signed a petition at Change.org demanding our politicians restrict foreign investment in our real estate market. They cite similar policies tried in Australia and England to cool — albeit unsuccessfully — spiking real estate prices overseas.
Opposition politicians have naturally seized the issue, although one has to wonder if they would do the same in government. An NDP Member of Parliament is demanding that government provide resources to study the impact of foreign investment in housing.
The terms of reference for this kind of plan alone would be daunting. There are approximately 4,000 municipalities in Canada, and most of them would love to have Vancouver’s revenue growth statistics.
The question is even more basic for the federal government. Why would you use limited tax dollars on a project whose end-goal is to deflate tax revenue from the real estate market?
It is debatable if any plan to curb foreign investment would even work. An Australian study determined that domestic buyers — taking advantage of low interest rates — have overwhelmingly driven up real estate prices in that country.
Do not despair, however, because our politicians can do something about housing affordability: allow more of it to be built.
The laws of supply and demand are no different here in B.C. than anywhere else. We have seen since the increase of development of attached housing that prices of condominiums have levelled off. This is happening in spite of some well-documented involvement of foreign buyers.
Barring a significant increase in interest rates, however, Vancouver’s limited supply of detached homes will continue to appreciate in value. That means we will continue to hear another sound.
The ringing of alarm bells over declining affordability.
tldr: the government makes a ton of money as a result of high real estate prices. They would be stupid to do anything to slow down the market.
__________________ Do Not Put Aftershave on Your Balls. -604CEFIRO Looks like I'm gonna have some hot sex again tonight...OOPS i got the 6 pack. that wont last me the night, I better go back and get the 24 pack! -Turbo E kinda off topic but obama is a dilf - miss_crayon Honest to fucking Christ the easiest way to get a married woman in the mood is clean the house and do the laundry.....I've been with the same girl almost 17 years, ask me how I know. - quasi
I frequent the airport in Vancouver a lot.
The amount of people who hold a Canadian passport and cannot speak a single drop of english is appaling.
Older folks... I have no comment, some probably came against their will even...
But what the fuck are you doing in Canada if you're in your 40s and cannot even understand a "yes" or a "no"?
lol, seattle is a depressing shit hole?
city proper perhaps but their burbs make langley, coquitlam, surrey etc look pretty bland.
Metro Van might have close proximity between mountains and ocean but seatac-bellevue is a major economic powerhouse, better road trip options (portland only 2.5 hours away), closer proximity to proper race tracks
and contrary to popular belief, unless you're in the working class, health care can actually be a lot better than our's.
tldr: the government makes a ton of money as a result of high real estate prices. They would be stupid to do anything to slow down the market.
True -- but it also exposes another 2 fairly simple facts:
1) The opposition party can easily spin this housing affordability issue into an election worthy item, and make a big deal out of it. With Crusty having already committed to NOT doing shxt, the NDP have all the ammunition they need to attack the Liberals from every possible angle. If the governing party doesn't do anything to slow the market down, they won't get invited back into the office the next time.
2) As far as I can see, the NDP has yet to take any advantage of point #1. It just goes to show how incompetent they are in every imaginable way. Agenda setting should be something you learn in politician school 101. It takes skill to effectively spin something up, but for something as dead simple as housing affordability, I honestly can't understand why the NDP hasn't brought it up yet. When you are not the governing party, everything else should be secondary to getting the party in power.
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!
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