We’ve all heard the old saying before buying a home, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” In the real estate market, we see this all of the time. There are many great properties that end up on the auction block each and every day. It’sContinue Reading
Continuing our consumer debt series, and today we’ll take a look at how interest rates play into things. So lets jump right in and start with interest rates and bankruptcies. Here I’ve overlayed interest rate and the national and provincial bankruptcy rates. What we can take from this graph isContinue Reading
Hope everyone enjoy their Thanksgiving long weekends, and filled up with turkey and complex carbohydrates. In the comments section of last weeks post on consumer debt someone referenced these stats on bankruptcies/insolvencies in Canada. I managed to find their historical bankruptcy numbers, but not the proposal and total insolvency stats (insolvencies = bankruptcies +Continue Reading
I got my Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi, and I got my Black Jack gum here, and I got that feeling… mmm that familiar feeling that something rank is going down up there. Yeah, I can smell it. I can almost taste it. Summer is gone and it’s fucking snowing again!Continue Reading
Those you that have been following the blog for awhile, or have browsed the archives, you may have came across my musings on a couple friends of mine (original story, and the update). Long story short, they bought a spec townhouse in mid 2006 for $200,000. Last October they decided theyContinue Reading
Of late we seem to be hearing increasingly from people predicting runaway inflation… sometimes almost cheerleading for it. For those who bought at the height of the bubble, this may seem on the surface to be an attractive viewpoint as it could quickly erase the downturn in prices. I’m notContinue Reading
Some of you may recall a month ago I did an entry on why weekly and bi-weekly payments really were not as good as they were cracked up to be. Today I’m going to be my second piece in the mortgage series, this time looking at fixed rate mortgages and their mechanics.Continue Reading
I had been wanting to do this for while, but could never find a solid set of data regarding historical incomes in Edmonton… but late last night I finally stumbled upon a Statcan report that was my dream come true. So today I’m going to take a look at incomes,Continue Reading
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
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