House Price Droping Is A Reality

[WilliamCave]

My opinion as a consumer not a banker a developer a realistate broaker etc..

As a consumer I sold my house in Bangkok and noticed the housing market was over inflated, and noticed that buying a house again there are more options out there with house options to get the property sold and many empty houses new and used....

To me this is not a tHAI THINK after coming back to Canada and traveling in the US I noticed changes in the housing markets the deflation of some of the over priced houses is startinfg to come down ...So it is a global thig from what I see and read on the news.

[thaigene2]

Yes hey William

It would be interesting to hear more about your sale in Thailand. As for Canada, I'll bet it feels the fall-out of the US and European credit problems. Seems remarkable that so many (with special interestes to protect of course) are trying to play this all down.

I think people are getting scared. It's heading toward duck and cover time..

[Cyberstar]

I'm just a consumer, too, and know absolutely nothing about real estate business as such. However, I read a lot including this board. If I'm not mistaken - it seems that (most) experts think it's a buyers market at the moment ... Doesn't this mean two things? - 1) There's a lot of people that wants to buy, and 2) Only the needy ones would want to sell ... which all sort of sums up to: There are bargains to get at the moment, but better hurry up, because soon there'll be no more bargains, because the only potential sellers left for the hesitant buyers would be those that can bide their time.

Nothing but another consumer's question.

[kelvinj]

Cyberstar, you appear to to have the wrong end of the stick, in a buyers market a lot of people want to sell but not many people want to buy, this means that the buyers can choose the best properties and hopefully negotiate the price down, because of the oversupply of properties for sale.

[WilliamCave]

Yes hey William

It would be interesting to hear more about your sale in Thailand. As for Canada, I'll bet it feels the fall-out of the US and European credit problems. Seems remarkable that so many (with special interestes to protect of course) are trying to play this all down.

I think people are getting scared. It's heading toward duck and cover time..

I agree with your statement 100% Seems remarkable that so many (with special interestes to protect of course) are trying to play this all down

[visionary]

For several years Canadian and International home prices have been rising to ridiculously insane levels, driven by pressure from parasitic speculators that seek to enrich themselves at the cost of the hardship of others. Given that in many markets houses are selling for several times cost of replacement speculators are flooding the market with new product hoping to cash in.In the city I live in Canada it now takes 2 or 3 incomes to rent a slummy one bedroom apartment.I took a short term job this summer delivering chinese food and was shocked to see so many small apartments that had living rooms filled with mattresses. Ridiculously high rent and real estate values will crash. The question is will they take the whole economy down with them ?

I have considered running in the next municipal election to promote a tenants strike.My proposal would be that tenants unilaterally reduce their rent to 30 percent of the income of the primary household earner while they sue the landlord in small claims court for property mismanagement. Here in Canada a tenant can withhold rent while a case is before the courts. Court action can take years to resolve. If 10000 tenants purued this recommendation locally a clogged judiciary and terrified business class would act quickly rectify the problem

[Smithson]

Here in Canada a tenant can withhold rent while a case is before the courts. Court action can take years to resolve. If 10000 tenants purued this recommendation locally a clogged judiciary and terrified business class would act quickly rectify the problem

Maybe this is why rents are so high? With tenants being able to withhold rents and owners also facing legal fees investors take quite a risk and hence need to maximize their profits. I don't know about Canada, but in the UK and Australia rental properties are not considered a good investment.

[MyPenRye]

For several years Canadian and International home prices have been rising to ridiculously insane levels, driven by pressure from parasitic speculators that seek to enrich themselves at the cost of the hardship of others. Given that in many markets houses are selling for several times cost of replacement speculators are flooding the market with new product hoping to cash in.In the city I live in Canada it now takes 2 or 3 incomes to rent a slummy one bedroom apartment.I took a short term job this summer delivering chinese food and was shocked to see so many small apartments that had living rooms filled with mattresses. Ridiculously high rent and real estate values will crash. The question is will they take the whole economy down with them ?

I have considered running in the next municipal election to promote a tenants strike.My proposal would be that tenants unilaterally reduce their rent to 30 percent of the income of the primary household earner while they sue the landlord in small claims court for property mismanagement. Here in Canada a tenant can withhold rent while a case is before the courts. Court action can take years to resolve. If 10000 tenants purued this recommendation locally a clogged judiciary and terrified business class would act quickly rectify the problem

Yes! you are right! There are probably many speculators making money right now, buying high and seeling higher. I hope the market does not crash!

I believe that there are also many retiring baby boomers (BBs) putting a lot of pressure on the system. Simply put, many BBs are trying to maximize their returns (stocks being quite risky for BB) in safer investments (land being one of the safest) and in conservative mutual funds. As far Canada is concerned, the resource based economy is doing quite well now that oil has reached incredible highs, making tar sands a viable commodity to exploit. This might also be impacting on the market.

As for rents, if someone bought one or 2 properties 30 years ago for nothing, they will find rental prices quite good, but not so if one bought it a few years ago. Rents in Vancouver, for instance, compare to the mortgage that one needs are low. If a $200,000 apartments/mortgage can get you only a $1,000 monthly rent (12,000 annually > about 5%), considering the laws are in favour of renters (unless this can be proven otherwise), it is not a good idea. However, if you bought this same place 30 years ago for $70,000, then it is much better. If you had $200,000 lying around, would you buy an extra apartment and rent it out? And, BTW, who is going to pay to maintain it? And imagine if that $200,000 was your nest egg, you worked hard to get it,... Things are not so simple!

I think the issue is that in Vancouver (specificaly), there are not too many people earning great salaries (although probably better now with inflated commodity prices). This puts a downward pressure on rental prices and on supplies of rental units (since buying and reselling seems to be --at this time-- a better idea. The Olympics --of course-- has exacerbated this situation, I think. And maybe the grow-ops (drugs) as well! It is a mess, but I am sure there are many hands that are getting greased! With so many unscrupulous people running the show, who knows where this is going to go? But, renters should understand that not all buildings/houses/rooms are from rich, unscrupulous people and that there are renters who are unscrupulous as well!