I don’t want those that read this blog to think I’m against buying real estate… I’m all for it, I just don’t think it’s a good idea to buy now. If I had not been looking to buy last summer, I would have never dived into the numbers and ultimately startedContinue Reading
The Globe and Mail article from yesterday got me thinking about our subprime mortgage situation in Canada. Some people say it’s just as bad as in the US, but they aren’t talking about truly subprime as much as they are about effectively non-prime or non-conventional lending Read moreWe’re different, it won’t happenContinue Reading
Figured I’d point out some of the stories making the rounds. – The February employment numbers are out, and they are dismal. 23,700 jobs lost just in Alberta, leaving unemployment at it’s highest rate is almost six years. 82,600 lost across the country. The federal and provincial governments seem almost in denialContinue Reading
So tomorrow is Friday the 13th… and if that doesn’t scare you, just wait until the Feds announce the latest employment numbers tomorrow. Very ouch, I’m sure. Today I’m going to take a quick look at an angle of the real estate industry that doesn’t often get much attention fromContinue Reading
Some of you may recall my writing about the situation of a couple friends of mine two months back. Figured I should do an update with Spring fast approaching and all. Anyway, now it’s been five months, four price drops, one re-listing and they still can’t even get so much as aContinue Reading
Calgary and Edmonton, two cities of similar sizes, linked together by geography, politics, and a healthy dislike of each other. In many ways it’s inevitable they’d be compared. One’s a little bit more country, the other a little bit more rock ‘n’ roll… one’s a little more white collar, theContinue Reading
I had been meaning to do this one for awhile, but never got around to doing all the number crunching… hopefully you guys will find this entry interesting, cause it took a fair bit of work. Read moreA Tale of Two CitiesEdmonton Historical PricesAs you have likely deduced, that isContinue Reading
The EREB announced their monthly tallies for February today, after a little bounce last month prices again took a tumble. The big stories would probably be the divergence of condo and townhome prices. Condos had actually defied gravity for a couple months, took a huge fall of 4.9% from January. They are alsoContinue Reading
This is the first in something of an intermittent series I’m going to do on mortgages. Despite often being a persons single biggest monthly expense, all too often people really do not understand how they work. And since I also get all geeked up doing this sort of stuff… behold.Continue Reading
Some days the mind wanders… you ponder such things as, if the Canwest media outlets pumped their own stock as much as they did real estate maybe their shares wouldn’t be trading at three for a dollar four for a dollar. Read moreMore Odds and EndsOkay, that was a low blow… butContinue Reading