Thursday, August 16, 2007

Name that date - VHB Archive - March 2006

"Even if the demand for houses falls in the outer suburbs, the market will probably never experience a downturn within the city proper. The real estate industry believes it is a captive market. There is virtually no building space left and if the desire to live closer to the city continues , values will keep soaring."

"Speculators are having a field day, with condominium units being a top hunting ground for them."

"It appears that no matter how high prices soar, there will still be buyers."

"We are a hell of a lot more liberal than we used to be" one banker said.

When were these things said? Let's try Oct 5th, 1980 in the Vancouver Province. (link)

Ok, let's try this one:

"While real estate prices have apparently reached a benchmark, there is no decline in house prices - and there won't be according to industry analysts."

"Look, there is a fact of life that people here are going to have to realize. If you want the fruits of living and working in a growing major cosmopolitain city, as everybody obviously does, there is a price to pay for it," an analyst said."Both agreed there is not a hope of prices falling and there is a terrific underlying strength to the market."

"The house prices have reached a temporary peak, simply because of the limitation of the purchasing power ..."

Let's try March 4th, 1981 in the Vancouver Province. (link)

Check the history - prices dropped by around 50% in 1981-82.

Now, we're in 2007 not 1981, so one should be careful in drawing conclusions. But it really is surprising how many of these quotes sound like the kind of things we hear today.

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