The value of a typical house in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties
fell 11.2 percent in November from a year earlier and 2.5 percent from
October, Standard & Poor’s S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
reported Tuesday.

It was the 10th consecutive record annual drop for the Seattle index,
which goes back to the start of 1990. The previous record monthly
….

The Van Sun quoting Rennie as he pumps the market is akin to The Tyee looking to “local real estate bloggers” to time the recovery of the market.

Same poop, different pile.

LP is right, caveat emptor.

P.

A great salesman sells something he DOESN’T HAVE, to someone who DOESN’T NEED IT!

This is why many consider Bob Rennie a great salesman when it comes to pre-sale condominiums.

Now Frances, are you heading down to Portland where I understand a major scandal has erupted? According to one of my colleagues… the best, most progressive mayor the city has had in 20 years is about to resign as a result of a sordid sex scandal–and he’s only been on the job 15 days!

So sometimes we have to count our blessings.

http://www.theprovince.com/Homes/Current+property+decline+last+long+Rennie/1216264/story.html

I’d wait for a bit yet. The deals will become even sweeter. Just keep in mind each of the guys quoted with exception to Cameron have a shitload of inventory to sell. Of course now is the time to buy, it always is when you’re the seller.

According to some bankers I know, seller prices are still high and need to come down. They figure another 3-6 months before that happens but still warn to exercise caution as many sellers are buying into the hype to sit and wait for the upside to return. The longer it doesn’t return, the better deal down the road.

I’m not sure many journalists could ever be classified as hard-nose or investigative for that matter. I think you need to look at each individual journalist and determine what role they play in the format with which they are published.

Parry for example is meant to write fluff – that’s all he ever does – hence my ‘on his knees’ comment. He isn’t paid to write any substance, just the bs spewed at parties around the city. I like to call Malcolm Parry Vancouver’s Chief Fluffer. (for anyone who isn’t sure what that is, do a wiki search, its probably there)

For other journalists, they have a specific role to fill in their organization. If their role isn’t to be ‘investigative’ I doubt their story will flow past the top line stuff.

Lastly, it’s not easy to be the lone voice crying out that the sky is falling, when everyone else is saying the opposite. It’s much easier to go with the flow as we’ve all seen the majority of media do on any topic. Hence the avalanche of reporting that comes when any story becomes worthy enough to drive the headlines.

Great. I agree. If I had condos to sell, I’d hire him.

The question is, why do the media quote him unquestioningly and fawn on his every word about the direction of the market? If you and I can see he is a self-interested marketer, then why can’t the ‘hard nosed’ journalists among us see the same?

And on the Parry thing–oh to have a delete function on comments. I over-reached with the numbers and with the vitriol. My apologies to all.

“THE HILLS adds value to the neighbourhood … The neighbourhood adds value to THE HILLS”

Everything adds to everything, both ways! The on-site billboard disappeared on November 12, 2008. But you can still check it out (with choice comments) at

http://www.slanted.ca/blog/2008/03/08/welcome-to-meltdown/

Meanwhile, Holborn now appears to be stuck with a flipped property, where a lot of value has already been extracted by the developer who finagled rezoning and then vamoosed.

In the spring of 2006 City Council gave unanimous approval to the rezoning request, after gulping guff about how the neighborhood would benefit from a grocery-store tenant. Guess what disappeared from the plans by the time the project went past the Development Permit Board in October 2008. On that occasion, city planning said, “Oh, the rezoning wasn’t conditional on that grocery store? Too bad for the neighborhood!”

To compound the insult, a one-phase proposal morphed into a two-phase. Who knows, down the line maybe that empty portion of the site can provide an opportunity to finagle even more density — after sitting around long enough to get claimed as a green feature.