SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Frustrated by one of the worst situations in air travel — passengers kept waiting in grounded, crowded aircraft for as much as 11 hours at a time — a consumer group is planning to stage a recreation of an extreme tarmac delay in the nation’s capital next week. p> The expectedcontinue reading
Business Archives
Change in tone
Months of smug, rah-rah, our market’s different from every other area with a housing boom in the world coverage are followed inevitably by: Scotiabank: [T]here is growing evidence of overvaluation in home prices in some parts of the country — a precursor to a period of softening conditions… the further domestic home prices climb above underlyingcontinue reading
Snap, crackle, and possibly pop
Finally, an article on real estate appears in the Canadian media that is not written by someone using the Canadian Real Estate Association talking points. Saturday’s Financial Post has a comment from a Lakehead University economics prof, who has done some basic analysis of prices to annual rental value to come up with a price-to-earningscontinue reading
Please, Sir, May I Have Another?
This ticks me off. Two years for taping a bit of a movie for your own personal use? WTFF? Could the government bend over any farther to the industry lobbyists?
Cognitive dissonance
The fundamentals in Toronto don’t point to continued accelerated growth in the housing market: Toronto CMA unemployment went up by 0.1% in July to 7.0% — one of the highest u/e rates in the country and higher than the headline 6.0%. Toronto’s wage growth was smack in the middle of national wage growth at 3.6%continue reading
Housing prices vs. rent
I recently had a conversation with an acquaintance who had bought a house to renovate and resell in the Bloor and Ossington area. She mentioned that she was amazed by the price rise in the area, and noted that if she wasn’t able to sell the house, she wouldn’t be able to rent it outcontinue reading
Cheap, secure parking in central London
From the Daily Mail: A hedge fund tycoon who ran up thousands of pounds of motoring fines abandoned his £80,000 supercar in a pound for three months – because he was too busy to collect it. … When they towed away his Maserati Cambiocorsa from a square in Knightsbridge in May, they were certain hecontinue reading
It’s a small world, small island edition
Watch the British housing market, says Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight in the Guardian: “The overall impression we get from the very latest data and survey evidence is that the housing market has peaked and is gradually and erratically coming off the boil.” Mr Archer added that prices were unlikely to slowcontinue reading
It’s a small world, after all
The US hipbone is connected to the Indian thighbone, thanks to outsourcing: First Magnus Halts Loans, Citing `Collapse’ of Mortgage Market By Jody Shenn Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) — First Magnus Financial Corp., the second-largest privately held U.S. mortgage company, stopped lending after bids for its home loans disappeared. “In light of the collapse of thecontinue reading
Right back where we started from
Maybe it is 2001, after all: TSX plummets 585 points on credit fears, biggest drop seen in six years August 16, 2007 – 13:28 One other thought: – The thing that seems to be causing the most static in the subprime mortgage sector is the adjustable rate mortgages, like the 2/28, where the first twocontinue reading