The Alberta 'Boom' Sucks

[boi-alien]

love the boom =)

[khtm]

Originally posted by ninjak84


Did I say that?
I love how grown men proudly prove their illiteracy on the internet.

Keep it on topic. We're discussing Alberta, not my personal life.

Awwww...is the little baby going to have to go get his mommy for backup now?

[civiclvr]

I dislike the boom because, even though everyone knew it was going to happen. No one in the city prepped for it (ctrain, roads etc) the city needs to be proactive.. not reactive.
as for affordability of living. It kinda pisses me off. Yeah i want a house. Yeah I finished school here and like others have said, got a decent paying job (or what would have been considered "decent" right before the housing boom hit.) Now i could never afford a house here, my wage is not going up the same way inflation is and i'm doomed to rent.
Yes this does sound like whining. oh well.
I lived most of my life in BC prior to the past 5 years here.. Victoria specifically, and i found while the transit there is not the best, it's not disgustingly overcrowded. the roads are not too bad, parking wasn't impossible, and hospitals actually got to you in the waiting room before you died.
I work in a structural engineering field and hear each and every day how much of an overhead contractors are putting on their bidding prices.. it's disgusting sometimes.. and i see where much of the costs of the cookie cutter home comes from.
anyways my job requires me to live in a decent sized city, but my salary dicates that i live in a small town... and i know i'm not the only one... many engineers and drafters at my work are in positions to not be able to buy homes.. and they have much more education that I.
I find it odd that someone who is well schooled and in a high level profession, can't afford a home.
On the bright side, I do believe that once the demand subsides (either lower immigration, or more housing built) housing may once again become an option to me.
I know there are a lot of people in the same boat.. and I sympathize with all of them. I'm not jealous of the uber rich people here, cause I enjoy what I do and like earning my money!
But I do like this city and would like to continue living here

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by 88CRX


You think the markets gonna bust that bad?

I won't be that bad. But it definitely be advantageous to have some cash around.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Xtrema


I won't be that bad. But it definitely be advantageous to have some cash around.

Originally posted at Wikipedia

Calgary's economy was so closely tied to the oil industry that the city's boom peaked with the average annual price of oil in 1981. The subsequent drop in oil prices and the introduction of National Energy Program, were cited by industry as reasons for a collapse in the oil industry, and consequently the overall Calgary economy. The NEP was cancelled in the mid-1980s by the Brian Mulroney federal government. Continued low oil prices, however, prevented a full recovery until the 1990s

With the energy sector employing a huge number of Calgarians, the fallout from the economic slump of the early 1980s was understandably significant. The unemployment rate soared. By the end of the decade, however, the economy was in recovery. Calgary quickly realized that it could not afford to put so much emphasis on oil and gas, and the city has since become much more diverse, both economically and culturally.

Edited:

Calgary's economy was so closely tied to the oil industry that the city's boom peaked with the average annual price of oil in 2006. The subsequent drop in oil prices and the introduction of The Kyoto Accord, were cited by industry as reasons for a collapse in the oil industry, and consequently the overall Calgary economy. The Kyoto Accord was never cancelled by Steven Harper federal government. Continued low oil prices, however, prevented a full recovery until the 2020's.

With the energy sector employing a huge number of Calgarians, the fallout from the economic slump of the Late 2000's was understandably significant. The unemployment rate soared. By the end of the next decade, however, the economy was in recovery. Calgary quickly realized that it could not afford to put so much emphasis on oil and gas yet again, and the city has since become much more diverse, both economically and culturally.

[khtm]

Woah...Tik-Tok can see into the future!!!

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by khtm
Woah...Tik-Tok can see into the future!!!

I can... in fact I foresee much flaming in this websites future!

[Toma]

^^^^ I still laugh how many redneck dumb Alberta Hicks still blame the NEP for what world oil prices caused lol...

LOL... the rest, I totally agree, and have been saying that for a while (see the investing board lol)....

People are out of money to. I think most everyone that could have bought a house, did buy already.

A buddy just sold his house 2 weeks ago.... AFTER it was conditionally sold 3 times!! 3 different buyers could not get financing even though 2 of them were pre approved. Finally, the last party went to a B lender to bypass CMHC (I dunno why they are being so sticky.... even though the appraissal was higher then sale price). This to me is a bad sign (good if you wanna see prices come down).

[ICEBERG]

Originally posted by Toma

A buddy just sold his house 2 weeks ago.... AFTER it was conditionally sold 3 times!! 3 different buyers could not get financing even though 2 of them were pre approved. Finally, the last party went to a B lender to bypass CMHC (I dunno why they are being so sticky.... even though the appraissal was higher then sale price). This to me is a bad sign (good if you wanna see prices come down).

A house across from me in Panorama hills was C/S maybe 5 to 6 times. When i ask the owner why his house has not been sold yet, he said that people couldn't get financing. He said his asking price was not an issue, it was that people couldn't come up with the money.

[88CRX]

Originally posted by ICEBERG


A house across from me in Panorama hills was C/S maybe 5 to 6 times. When i ask the owner why his house has not been sold yet, he said that people couldn't get financing. He said his asking price was not an issue, it was that people couldn't come up with the money.

Well whats your income required for, say a $400k-$500k home mortgage?

Alot more then the average person/couples income I bet.

[rc2002]

I'd say gross income would have to be about $130k a year for a $500k mortgage.

[Rav4Guy]

^ gross 130k-150k for dual income families isn't all that much....

[E36M3]

A good realtor should educate the seller about C/S and they should take into account the ability of the party making the offer to come up with financing. I wouldn't seriously look at an offer unless they were pre-approved.

Most likely they continuously accepted the highest offer without considering a pre-approval being in place. Lots of times this is a lucrative strategy as the sketchier people tend to make higher offers, but you do run the risk of going through multiple conditional sales.

Originally posted by ICEBERG


A house across from me in Panorama hills was C/S maybe 5 to 6 times. When i ask the owner why his house has not been sold yet, he said that people couldn't get financing. He said his asking price was not an issue, it was that people couldn't come up with the money.

[ninjak84]

Originally posted by Toma
A buddy just sold his house 2 weeks ago.... AFTER it was conditionally sold 3 times!! 3 different buyers could not get financing even though 2 of them were pre approved. Finally, the last party went to a B lender to bypass CMHC (I dunno why they are being so sticky.... even though the appraissal was higher then sale price). This to me is a bad sign (good if you wanna see prices come down).

True, signs are everywhere that certain markets have lost strength in the last year or two.
More and more people are relying on bank loans and mortgages to get a bigger house, instead of using hard currency on down-payments, or living within their means.
It's really strange seeing people talk like you can't buy a decent house for under $600k.
Some of my friends, who aren't married or have kids, are looking at houses built for a family of 5.

Even if "The Boom" is ending in Calgary, we're only experiencing something that happens to every city as it grows. Wait until drilling starts in Saskatchewan, or look at places like California 40 years ago. But I wouldn't say Calgary is a deflated balloon just yet. We have alot more growing to do.

Besides, anyone left behind in Calgary's latest 'boom', can easily find another growing city to capitalize on.

[WhiteNikes]

On the down side, it ain’t really that hype that I been outta school for a good piece a time ‘n’ ain’t got no chance of linkin’ a house no time soon.

On the bright side, I know where I come from. While I do got pretty safe education, the kinda $ I’m making now and the kinda business that the company I work for is doing wouldn’t be possible with out the boom, and even with out the lack of cats to work. I’ve essentially got ‘nothing’ but my education, which may be attributed to the fact that I am one of those who ain’t lived at home since 17, never got a dime from my old man, and don’t get along with my mother, but I’m in a much better situation than members of my extended family in other parts of the world.

I get the idea that transit could be better, but it gets the job done. Taking the public transit only spoken about in jest in the part of Florida that I lived in. It’s undoubtedly humours that the Wendys (eat great even late) by my house closes at 8 cause they ain’t got the staff and that the KFC beside it is offering benefits, but that’s not really killing me. Many of my close friends have two jobs because of the boom and just like myself don’t really want or need the second, but do it ‘just because’. I don’t think that would be the case if the boom weren’t going on. I’d say I’m pretty indifferent to the situation but would rather it be here than not.

[Maxt]

Originally posted by Toma
^^^^ I still laugh how many redneck dumb Alberta Hicks still blame the NEP for what world oil prices caused lol...

LOL... the rest, I totally agree, and have been saying that for a while (see the investing board lol)....

People are out of money to. I think most everyone that could have bought a house, did buy already.

A buddy just sold his house 2 weeks ago.... AFTER it was conditionally sold 3 thttp://forums.beyond.ca/newreply.php?s=&action=newreply&postid=1793251
Beyond.ca - Car Forums - Reply to Topicimes!! 3 different buyers could not get financing even though 2 of them were pre approved. Finally, the last party went to a B lender to bypass CMHC (I dunno why they are being so sticky.... even though the appraissal was higher then sale price). This to me is a bad sign (good if you wanna see prices come down).

Ummmm, yeah whatever, more socialist dogma.. The NEP pushed oil prices below world oil prices...Falling world energy prices is what brought an end to the NEP, I think you are forgetting that it was also a taxation program as well as a price control strategy, and it was the taxation portion that dealt the greatest blow to the Alberta economy..

[googe]

Originally posted by Vertigo

Judging by client requests for locating property in the city I'm going to have to say that in my opinion I see another mini-boom this spring. Keep an eye on interest rates and what CMHC is doing to approve mortgage insurance - if rates decrease and amortizations get even longer (40yrs) you're sure to see property values rise again (hell, everyone on here that's pissed off they couldn't get into something last spring will think twice if it starts going up again). This will fuel more increases.

Toma hit the nail on the head...he called it 'compression' between condos and larger houses. That's the result of a market correction as when prices rise 7%/a (whatever % you want to use) and the more expensive properties pull away from the cheaper ones until you get a correction and they come back together (no more money for $1M homes so you look into buying 'average' houses again).

If you can't buy a house/condo on your own, or with parents' help, get into something with a buddy, SO, or friend of the family...whatever you can do to secure at least something.

Immigration is going to go up, traffic problems will persist, and Calgary is taking on a whole new dynamic!

Good luck

the doomsday bubble theorists should take this guys advice very seriously i think youre going to be kicking yourself (again) later...

[RWD]

http://calgary-housing.blogspot.com/

[Toms-SC]

Cool link

[benyl]

Originally posted by googe


the doomsday bubble theorists should take this guys advice very seriously i think youre going to be kicking yourself (again) later...

haha, that is why I am looking for my next house.

In the mean time, I am hoarding huge amounts of cash in very liquid investments in case the bubble bursts.