No Bubble to See Here – Part 3 – Sustainability
Are Vancouver real estate values sustainable? Short Version Yes. Easily. Long Version No doubt that question may seem laughable to some. The thing is, depending upon one’s age, this question has...
View ArticleNo Bubble To See Here – Part 4 – The Amortization Effect
The Amortization Effect Each year from 2008 through 2010 the Federal Government reduced the maximum amortization as follows. Purchases with less than 20% down –from 40–35 years, then 35- 30 and...
View ArticleNo Bubble To See Here – Part 5 – When Rates Rise
But when rates go back up… It is not when, it is if. I wrote that correctly. If they go up, as in if they go up in time to matter to me or to you, Mr. & Mrs. Homeowner. Maybe they stay low for...
View ArticleNo Bubble To See Here – Part 6 – Emotion
Why none of the math in previous posts in this series really matters… Emotion The largest investment in the entire process of purchasing real estate is the emotional investment. Emotion drives...
View ArticleHow have you structured your own mortgage and why?
Ask your Broker or your banker the following Question; How have you structured your own mortgage and why? Aside from discovering that an overwhelming number of mortgage professionals have their own...
View ArticleWriting a subject free offer?
Following are just a few rules and considerations. It looks like a long list of things that could be potentially serious problems, but I assure you the full list is far longer. This is just the tip...
View ArticleBroken Telephone: Scotiabank and Vancouver Mortgages
A game of broken telephone… Fact – Jenny says ‘I like Johnny’s friend Jim’. Fiction – School newspaper runs with ‘Jenny caught kissing Johnny in gym’. Detachment from Reality – Student chatter...
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Money Laundering & Vancouver Real Estate
Money Laundering As of late there has been much media attention focused on the role of foreign buyers, and increasingly on ‘money laundering’. No doubt both foreign buyers and money laundering play a...
View ArticleA Slap In The Face… For CDN’s Too
In the News: 15% Property Transfer (bonus) Tax for Foreign Buyers. Short Version “Good intentions can often lead to unintended consequences” – Tim Walberg As Canadians we no longer appear to be a...
View ArticleHas Mortgage Debt Shot Up?
Apologies for last week’s typo-laden post. It was a draft not meant to be released. The refined version of the post ‘What Does It Mean To Be Canadian’ was live on the site later in the day. One of the...
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Perspective And Vancouver Real Estate
Is the sky falling, in reference to Vancouver real estate? Certainly there have been hyperbolic headlines with anecdotal content based on incomplete data over too short of a timeline suggesting indeed...
View ArticleAre You A Genius?
Three Types of Real Estate Investors There are three types of real estate investors. There’s the Tourist, the Committed (mostly), and the Genius. The Tourist The Tourist is somebody who converts...
View ArticleDifferent Times, Different Mortgages.
Different times call for different mortgages. My current recommendation for (specifically qualified) buyers is often a two-year fixed. This is what ~70 per cent of my clients are already in at the...
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Call Your Local Professionals We have seen no shortage of headlines this year, or any of the past 5, 10 or 20 years, from ‘credentialed’ observers of the Canadian Real Estate market from around the...
View ArticleChanges For All Coming Oct 17, 2016
Happy Turkey-Day! It is a holiday, so this is brief. Much more to follow over the coming weeks on the Oct 17th guideline changes. What do these changes mean for you? If you are actively shopping for...
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108 Year 7 month Amortization… Totally Cool Says The Fed!
July 2015 I wrote 136 words on this topic, hoping that the image alone would get some traction. It was a pretty insane image to a numbers geek like me – linked here. Perhaps this 381 words worth...
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Market Averages, Government Intervention, & Reality.
In the Vancouver market, we often hear about the benchmark price, the average price, and the median home price. Usually that of a specific neighbourhood or municipality. However, what buyers rarely...
View ArticleReal Estate Stats; The Sky Is Not Falling
Numbers; the bane of our modern existence. We increasingly put our faith in, and base decisions on, what the numbers tell us. Which is to say we allow our decisions, and mindset, to be shaped by the...
View ArticleWhat Happened With Prime?
Did Prime go up? No. Did my Variable rate mortgage rate change? No, not unless your variable rate mortgage is with TD. So the Bank of Canada did not raise rates? No, in fact they are more...
View ArticleHow a Backup Offer Can Secure Your Dream Home
Have you found the house of your dreams? But there is already an accepted offer in place? OK, but are there outstanding subjects on the offer? Perhaps there’s a ‘subject to sale’ with a 72-hour...
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