Re:For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver
by eigenvector on Monday May 08, 2017 @03:39AM
(#14289908)
The Chinese consul in Vancouver actually criticized the Canadian government for doing too little to regulate the housing market. She even suggested a tax on foreign buyers to quell some of the public outrage about housing prices.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/the-market/chines...
Re:For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver
by lawnchair_larry on Monday May 08, 2017 @04:00PM
(#14295035)
I actually heard a Chinese investor, active in the market, talking about how stupid the Canadian government is to allow him to do what he does. He was basically boasting that he will keep it going as long as he is allowed, and that the new regulations are weak and ineffective if you can afford a decent lawyer. In other words, "don't hate the player, hate the game."
Seattle will probably be too slow to react and end up in the same situation, but maybe it will get the attention of other cities/states before it becomes a problem.
I'll be curious as to see how this affects Vancouver real estate prices. Right now it doesn't seem to have had a huge effect, but if the market crashes, it will be very interesting to watch to see how it ends up. Real estate there has been going straight up for so long, it's a way of life for 2 generations who have never seen a major crash. I wonder if the market does crash, it will shake out the way the dotcom bust did, where people kept buying because they thought "it's on sale" but it never reached a bottom until so many people lost so much money.