What's Wrong with Canada?
- Thread starter shortie
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Yes, it happens here too. Standard joke in Vancouver: what body of water divides India from China?
The first cut is self-aggregation based on wealth. The second cut is, to an an extent that befuddles some perspectives, generally based on ethnic background.
IMO only real problem with Canada is the cold weather.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303745304576355170933584418.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
05.31.2011
"Canada's economy expanded at a 3.9% annualized pace in January through March, the fastest clip in a year and more than double the rate in the U.S"
"GDP growth accelerated from a downwardly revised 3.1% in the fourth quarter, which was originally reported at 3.3%. The economic performance was the reverse of the U.S. where growth decelerated to 1.8% in the first quarter from 3.1% previously."
"On a quarterly basis, GDP in Canada accelerated 1% from 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Final domestic demand grew 0.6%, half the pace of the previous period. "
05.31.2011
"Canada's economy expanded at a 3.9% annualized pace in January through March, the fastest clip in a year and more than double the rate in the U.S"
"GDP growth accelerated from a downwardly revised 3.1% in the fourth quarter, which was originally reported at 3.3%. The economic performance was the reverse of the U.S. where growth decelerated to 1.8% in the first quarter from 3.1% previously."
"On a quarterly basis, GDP in Canada accelerated 1% from 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Final domestic demand grew 0.6%, half the pace of the previous period. "
decades ago when there was a spate of airplane hijacking people did not want to carry US or UK passports. it was known that you were safe if you carried a Canadian passport.
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hosing boom in Canada
vancouver home boom
Chinese Fuel Vancouver Home Boom
By MONICA GUTSCHI
A fresh wave of Chinese buyers, coupled with Canada's already frothy home prices, has vaulted Vancouver into the ranks of the world's most unaffordable real-estate markets.
Bungalowsâsmall, detached, single-story homes, some in need of significant repairâcan command prices well above a million Canadian dollars (US$1.02 million.) One local website, crackhouseormansion.com, invites visitors to guess whether homes pictured on the site are property sold for more than C$1 million or are alleged crack houses.
The Canadian Real Estate Association says the average house price in Canada in April was C$372,544, up 8% from last year. In Vancouver, it was more than twice that, at C$815,252, up 21% from a year ago.
Demographia, a property-affordability survey published by Illinois-based consultant Wendell Cox, estimates that median real-estate prices in Vancouver are 9.5 times median household income. Only Hong Kong and Sydney are less affordable by that measure. (New York comes in at 5.1.)
The price rises are especially sharp in the high end of the market, with real-estate agents pointing to a flood of foreign buyers, particularly Chinese. Condominiums are popular, but so are single-family homes, including fixer-uppers that buyers eventually tear down. While there is some speculative buying, Canadian and Chinese agents say Chinese buyers are looking for longer-term investments to diversify their holdings outside of the mainland.
Sales of homes worth more than C$2 million soared by 118% in Vancouver in the first four months of this year, real-estate brokerage RE/MAX reported in May. The average price in the high-end segment now tops C$3 million.
Eric Christiansen
PRICEY IN ANY CURRENCY: This house in West Vancouver hit the seven-figure mark in Canadian dollars.
Quantifying Chinese buying is difficult. Local authorities don't publish statistics on foreign ownership of residential property. Real-estate consultancy Landcor Data Corp. pored through sales data in two high-end Vancouver neighborhoods, looking for "pure" Chinese namesâexcluding Western first names or any "remotely non-Chinese" variantsâin an attempt to get a sense of the scale of mainland buying. They found 74% of buyers of luxury homes in the areas last year fit the category.
Vancouver real-estate agents say Chinese buyers dominate the high end of the market, fanning demand and prices across the city. The strong demand for high-end homes has helped drive up prices for more modest houses. Some Vancouverites are selling their now richly valued homes and buying more-expensive ones, while new buyers are scrambling to buy before prices rise further, agents say.
"It creates this positive vibe, this dynamic to the market that is upbeat," says Elton Ash, vice president for western Canada at RE/MAX.
Canadian home prices have climbed steadily since the end of the economic and financial crisis, even as U.S. home prices resume their decline. Low interest rates have made borrowing easy, and the global commodities boom has fired up Canada's resource-rich economy. On Tuesday, the Bank of Canada kept its benchmark rate at 1%, though some expect the bank to raise rates by the end of the year, spurring some buyers to act before mortgage rates go up. Other markets, including Toronto and Montreal, have seen their own steady home-price increases, but nothing has approached the boom in Vancouver.
The boom has triggered a bit of a backlash. A former city councilor, Peter Ladner, in April caused a ruckus after he said Vancouver should study measures, which could include restricting both local and foreign real-estate purchases, to ease prices. "It's eroding business, the economy, because people can't afford to move here to take up jobs," he says. He recommends .......
Canadian banks managed to avoid the US subprime mess.