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Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:49:10 -0000

Sorry Clouseau........but I don't work there.

And car sales people are different in one very salient and important way. We never say "buy today or you'll be priced out forever" or "don't worry if you buy this car today it'll be OK because next year it will be worth more" or "cars only go up in value you know"..........

On the subject of costs........my sister lives in Pembrooke Ontario and everything there is much cheaper.......housing etc........but wages are also much less.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:56:44 -0000

In other news........Alberta retail sales fall 9% year over year and it looks like Ed Stelmach is facing an $8 BILLION deficit.........soon to be annnounced of course. That means we'll have cutbacks and layoffs......or new taxes. But Ed says there will be no new taxes, so cutbacks and layoffs it will be........

Wonder how that new mega-mall in Balzac is doing ? Anyone want to start a death pool for it ? I predict it will be 24-36 months before it is in receivership.

Yep.......gotta run out there right now and buy some real estate........LOL !!!

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:36:42 -0000

So this loser killed himself in Hope. How ironic.

First he ripped of people as a realtor here, then he ripped off people as a salesman for Concrete Equities as well. During this time he assaulted two women, one here and one in the US, then lastly he killed his ex-wife in CA about 2 weeks ago.

At least he saved us taxpayers the cost of the interim jail custody during the extradition hearings that would have perhaps taken years, before he was eventually sent back to the US to be someone's jailhouse bitch. What a piece of human trash.

Now before someone criticizes me, I have met his father numerous times when I worked at the BMW dealer here, and in my personal opinion the guy was the biggest, most pompous, self centered ass that you could imagine.

The apple does not fall far from the tree.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:53:12 -0000

Sort of a "Cash for Clunkers" house version........

LOL !!! jsan33........well said........

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:37:50 -0000

When Calgary prices drop "ANOTHER" 40-50% like the US (and they wil eventually) you'll see an increase in sales here as well.

Dooouuuhhh !!!!

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:26:33 -0000

Atzi........

Thanks for the link to the flick.........I will watch it tonight.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:49:28 -0000

Global News has an ineterst in the monthly Las Vegas sales ???? LOL !!

You are not even a good liar.

Link please.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:42:49 -0000

Don't you just love how the MSM liars always say that unemployment, or prices, or taxes, or interest rates always "UNEXPECTEDLY" rose or fell........what a bunch of REIC pimps.

Like they don't know what is really going on, there is so much government and REIC lying happening right now it is unbelievable....well no....actually it is not.

Heh.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:31:42 -0000

My point is the same as yours.

That there are much better, and much, much, cheaper places in which to live.

;-)

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:08:29 -0000

Squidly66......

He also formerly worked for...........wait for it.........."Concrete Equities" as a salesman........LOL !!

-------------------------------------

The wife and I got back from Las Vegas on Monday after a 4 day stay there..........

Walking thru the Fashion Show Mall beside the Wynn hotel we ran into one of those realtor booths where they have someone sitting and have pics of properties for sale. Across the top of the booth was a huge banner in red and white that said "WE LOVE CANADIANS".......as well as one of our flags.

I stopped and chatted with the female realtor (who didn't try to blow smoke up my ass amazingly enough) about the market there. Las Vegas property taxes are about $1K per $100K of value. You don't have heating bills as it is always 20-40 degrees year round, and if your home is designed right, you don't have huge AC bills either.

The houses that were on display there are about 1/4 to 1/3 the price of what people are trying to get here........

$120-150K gets you a really nice newer "Mcmansion" with a 2 or 3 car front drive garage.........that would cost $400-500K in Calgary.........and $60-80K gets you a nice condo that is $250K here.

Walking thru the streets of Vegas and in the hotels/malls you get accosted by people asking "Where are you from".......it happened to us about 5 times in 4 days. They offer you free tickets to shows and buffets, etc..........but the catch is that you must first sit thru a 2 hour presentation for buying shares in a hotel room at "The Jockey Club" which is a complex being built beside The Bellagio.

Notice they ask where you are from first ?

The locals aren't stupid enough to fall for the pitch and the commercial banks are clawing financing back as well..........in fact when we were there, Las Vegas's Colonial Bank went mammaries skyward. It was the biggest bank bust of the year to date. The project looked moribund as well, with no one on site that we could see except for security.

All the casinos were only about 25-50% full on Saturday night.......you could easily get tickets to popular shows for 1/2 price on the day of the show.........entering a restaurant was easy. The Chanel, Rolex, Prada, LV, Hugo Boss stores, etc, were empty during the day, as well as on Friday night and Saturday. Wifey bought some Christian Laboutin shoes and another LV purse for a combined total savings of $600 LESS than she would have paid here in Canada after forex and taxes......and I "almost" bought a Rolex Daytona for a minimum $7K less than what they want here (they were asking $12K USD there and they dropped the price by $1K in the first 30 seconds of chatting.......versus a firm $18K here).

We flew "Executive First" class on AC and there were only 4 of us in the front cabin of the E190 jet out of a total of 9 seats. People making mortgage payments sat in the back. It's good to be a renter and debt free. GAWD I love deflation and dollar parity.

It's coming to a city near you.............like the guy in the ING ad says "save your money". That is why I didn't buy the watch.......in November when we go back I bet I can save even more. Funny thing is, the wife says to me yesterday........Calgary is such a dead boring city with no life........I want to go back to Vegas.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:51:38 -0000

I’ve been laughing like crazy today because of the $10.3MM house sale in Calgary.

The entire MSM is spinning like a dradle as a result, and all the realtor blogs are trumpeting the “confidence” people have in the market. LOL !! Well dooouuuhh......put a 12K square foot house (that will never be built again) on a huge oversized lot, parked on a very quiet cul de sac, whilst fronting the riverbank, and it is no surprise. It's one of a kind.........and something that is "OOAK" always sells.

Just because a Faberge Egg sells to someone with the means to buy it, does not mean that Peoples Jeweller's will have a record year........ROTFLMAO......!!!

You'll note that the lairs and frauds who write the RE articles for the Calgary Herald are not allowing comments on the article about this sale either. EDIT.....looks like they have now allowed comments.

Sales volume is tracking to be way down again from last month……and the lowest sale price of the day is now always in the 200K level……and pretty regularily in the 100K range. It used to be in the $400K range, then the $300K range.......imagine that. No wait, you can't, because you're in a state of denial.......Radley ??

The temporary blip in the SFH average from Vernon's house will be absorbed by the end of the month or threabouts, and we'll be back on track to our usual series of DECLINES.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:27:53 -0000

I'm off to Las Vegas early tomorrow morning........see you all next week sometime.

It will be interesting to get a first hand look at the RE mess down there when I am killing time between the wife's shopping trips to all the "supposed" discount malls.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:06:30 -0000

Only 15% of our money is in CAD $.......and none is in US $.......I recognize the risk inherent in holding our own money (or the USD) at this time. There are other currencies out there that make more sense.

We'll have to disagree on rates though. I think the "bond vigilantes" as they are called will have a heydey with the US soon, and unless the US makes a deal with the devil (China) they'll fold and rates will rise.

If they make that deal and China keeps buying their paper it will come at such a great price, either politically or economically, that it will mean upheavel in the US and maybe war down the road, probably over Taiwan. I can see Obama saying to the Chinese it is OK if you take over Taiwan, please just keep supporting our treasury and we'll do nothing.

FWIW I believe that all it takes is just one country to blink and the rate war is on.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:16:04 -0000

Rates will go up sooner than you think (which will further deteriorate RE values) because we will have to follow the US now to sell our own national debt, as the FED has started monetizing US debt in a big way now, since no one else will buy it like they did in the past. So they will ultimately have to raise interest rates on their debt.......or print even more money to buy it, thus making it worthless. Here's what happened last week..........they tried to hide it but got caught.

Basically what happened is that the US government's weekly debt auction of treasury notes was claimed as sold out even though the previous weeks one fell flat.....so this time the FED had primary dealers like GS, et al, buy the issue and in turn the FED bought it all back from the dealers with money they created out of thin air.

It is over, the USD will now crumble and rates will rise dramatically as the world finally, and officially, lost faith in the US economy last week. Get out of RE, get out of the USD if you are in it, and get your money out of the country now before it is to late and the government imposes currency trading and transfer restrictions on us because of the US collapse, which will trigger our own. You might have a few months to a year or two before the whole thing implodes on itself IMHO. I am ready........are you ?

Peter has now paid Paul......wonder what the new Weimar Dollars will look like ? Obama isn't on money yet, is he ? LOL !!!

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:14:15 -0000

Fencesitter.......

After laying off hundreds of thousands any company can report a profit.........but as consumer demand is struggling everywhere, it gets even harder to do........

From June 2009......Overall Canadian corporate profits fell 24% on average in the first quarter of 2009........Q2 has not yet been released.

Business investments in Canada fell at the fastest rate since 1982. The manufacturing sector, pulled down by a 26 per cent fall in motor vehicle and parts production, accounted for about half of the overall decline in the first quarter of 2009.

Wholesale trade and transportation services declined the most among the service producing sectors. The increases in the public sector mitigated the decline in the production of services.

Real GDP contracted at an annualized rate of 5.4 per cent in the first quarter, compared with a 5.7 per cent decline in the US economy. Gee, we really are different eh ?

Labour income fell 0.7 per cent in the first quarter. Employment was down 1.4 per cent as were average hours worked. Wages and salaries in goods producing industries led the decline.

Banks and some others have been allowed to relax accounting rules at the behest of governments.

The board that sets U.S. accounting standards on Thursday gave companies more leeway in valuing assets and reporting losses. The changes should help boost battered banks’ balance sheets and financial stocks rallied on Wall Street.

The FASB board’s action helped fuel a buying surge on Wall Street, lifting the Dow Jones industrial average about 300 points in a rally led by financial company stocks.

The FASB issued new guidelines under the so-called mark-to-market accounting rules, which require companies to value assets at prices reflecting current market conditions. The changes, which apply to the second quarter that began this month, will allow the assets to be valued at what the banks project they might sell for in the future, rather than in the current, distressed environment.

I am sorry for posting facts to rebut your position........I can understand how they might get in the way of your bullshit.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:19:32 -0000

RE went down again this month.

Corporate profits are down or non-existant. Those that have them, ie: the banks, are manufactured profits and short term due to accounting fraud which is being condoned by government.

Tax revenues are down everywhere........which means cutbacks or debt. Both have limits.

Our monthly grocery bill has been going down as well. It is still way too much however, for just two people.

Alll of the high end restaurants on 8th Avenue are down 50% in revenue........so prices are dropping across the board.

New car prices are still down and dropping as manufacturers try to reverse the slump, but to no avail.

Wages are going down. Encana staff took a 5% pay cut and in my former industry there are cuts as well. Some as high as 20%.

Louis Vuitton had a 10% off sale.

Yes, there is no deflation.......and the frog also doesn't know the water is boiling.

IMHO the current bear rally on the DOW and TSE is being driven by the "PPT" and professional traders. Volume is way down in the US, and this has been the big topic as of late amongst those down there who are assessing it's "real" impact. I don't doubt there is money to be made playing the swings, but I do no subscribe to the notion that it indicates an economic rebound of any kind.

Now if you ask the media talking heads, they are all saying everything is becoming sunflowers and unicorns again.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:42:13 -0000

I guess if you are under CDIC limits it is theoretically OK.....but still, it's worth figuring out who they really are.

Personally I think CAD and the US are broke, in serious trouble, and too risky a place to put your money. Maybe I am Chicken Little......but I have such a marked distrust of all politicians and Wall Streeters due to the last few years events, that I'd rather be safe with a zero return than not being able to sleep at night for 10% or more.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:34:33 -0000

FWIW the wife and I are roughly asset allocated as follows......

55% foreign currency government bonds
15% cash (actual pieces of paper in $20's and $50's)
20% foreign RE
10% digital cash in foreign and CAD bank accounts

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:07:02 -0000

Mike......

Leave it in cash somewhere. 1 or 1.5% is better than a defined negative figure which is what everything else offers. Everything is deflating, so it is a matter of minmizing your losses IMHO. I have a pile of cash in a home safe and I am happy that I get zero for it.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:10:43 -0000

Mike_O_Rama.......

This quote from Schiff in the article you posted hit the bulllseye. We're richer than we think......heh !!

"If your friend were in trouble because he had too much debt, would you encourage him to take on even more? Wouldn’t a real sign of progress be a reduction of debt, even if he had to cut back on his everyday expenses? What is true for an individual is also true for a collection of individuals, even if they call themselves a ‘government.’ If, as a country, we are even deeper into debt now than we were before, we are worse off."

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:08:40 -0000

Well, in Calgary SFH sales are down 15% month over month, and prices are down $11,000 or 3% for the month of July alone. Condos are flat price wise, and sales are down 5% month over month.

SFH average prices are down $70,000 from their $505,000 high in July of 2007. Condos are down $47,000 from their May 2007 high of $332,000.

So, someone who a bought a SFH in that period, and at that price, who would have sold today, would theoretically have lost roughly $100,000 by the time you factor in a price discount from list, and the property pimps commission. Now, let’s add in thier mortgage payments and operating costs shall we ? Nah, why would you do that, it would just make it a $130,000 – $150,000 loss………

Overall sales volume ticked up in June and July year over year due to FTB’ers “walking the plank”, but there are only so many greater fools to go around.

Re-read the above to see what awaits them.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 23:08:08 -0000

You tell me..........what happened ?

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:14:57 -0000

Jim S.....

The amount of lying on behalf of various governments and the associated state organs is incredible. Everytime they release a "statistic" of some sort it immediately gets revised 3 months later, when everyone forgot about it, because it was actually worse than first announced.

One thing I am truly enjoying from a spectator's point of view is the death of Canwest Global, the CBC and other MSM news organizations. But these two are first and foremost in terms of the pleasure it gives me to see them rot from the inside out.

House Hunt Victoria has an excellent blog thread about the end of the MSM as we know it, which is entitled The Spinning Wheel of Death and it details their demise quite nicely.........Canwest Global stock used to be $21.00 and now it is a dime.....that's right........10 cents, which is more than what their journalistic integrity is worth.

If I ran this country pretty much all the bankers and most of the REIC would be in jail serving 20 to life for fraud, right beside a few politicans for incompetence. No need for trials by jury, just summary convictions, then bread and water.

I like how they do things in China.......screw up with the public purse and you get 2 grams of lead to the back of the head in a sports arena.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:19:08 -0000

I am seriously thinking about writing a cheque for this townhouse in the US. Looking at getting down there in the next month to see it along with a few others.

It would be a vacation property.

The interior has 4 bedrooms and 1.5 baths with nice hardwood floors, a new furnace, new electrics and central AC as well as a garage........

Anyone wanna guess how much ?

$20,000 USD.........that is not a typo.

Re: The Pitch From Toronto...

CariocaCanuck — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:07:01 -0000

If you have the intelligence to make a buying decision on a bubble priced house.......then you will surely have the intelligence to comprehend this article which says that now is the time to sell and not to buy.......

Any of the bulls who read this blog, they are still around, aren't they, wanna try and debunk this ?

Just insert the word CANADA wherever you see US, and Bank of Canada wherever you see a reference to the FED or US Treasury........we are not different in any way, shape, or form, despite what the criminals in the REIC would have you believe..........

BTW our landlord said we can paint any part of the interior of our rental condo in any color that we want, as long as it is returned to it's original state upon moving out. We can put whatever we want on the walls, and quite frankly have at 'er, provided it is the same as when we moved in.

In this regard renting is the same as home ownership, as you have to make your place saleable before you list it if your tastes do not appeal to the overall broader spectrum of buyers.........

Imagine that, home owners have told us we could not do that, which was one of their flimsy reasons they used for buying a home.........speaking of buying a home........read my next post.