Wow. I'm off-line for a few days, and the whole world changes.
VHB packs it in, and stuns thousands.
I was surprised - much as you all were. I guess I'm not really that surprised - keeping up the research, collating it, posting it, and responding to all of the commentary must have been a Herculean effort for our friend Vance. I know that my own wife just barely puts up with the time that I spend ensconced in my den of iniquity tapping out inanities to the blogosphere.
There is a lot of speculation as to why VHB hung up his keyboard, but I would venture to say that it was a daunting task for him to scribe pointedly every day. My own personal life is impinging on my ability to post just lately (my wife would say that the blogging impinges on my personal life...), and the next week or two holds bigger challenges to doing so, but I will attempt to keep up.
I have always seen this blog as an amusement - rather than a serious look at the market, and I don't see that changing. Numbers and graphs bore me, but VHB's graphs and analysis did not. Nothing has changed, other than VHB is not part of our daily routine of reading anymore. Best of luck to him.
mohican does good graphs, the pope has a pretty good grasp of things, and is funny to boot, and Rob Chipman has the current numbers for inventory and sales.
Many of us have been wrong about timing, but I still believe that things will change (they already are). These are the craziest times I have seen (in so many ways), and I am beginning to wonder if it is me that is crazy. Nope, it's not me. The Vancouver weather in winter cannot be beat in Canada, but that does not justify the prices here. I saw on the news last week, an item on housing in Windsor, Ont. that made me stop and think - a fairly new, big, very nice house for sale for 249K. I have been waiting for a reversal of fortune here, but am really starting to wonder if I will see that in a meaningful way.
Posting here will be sporadic in the coming days, but I will do my best to keep it up.
Thanks for swinging by.
8 comments:
Yes, so sad to see VHB go. He did great work. The 'personal life' factor is probably the reason he's cut the rest of us off... his blogging work was excellent, though and I hope he can devote time to his profession, whatever that is and make money for his family. It's not easy to keep up the flow of information and analysis that he had going there.
BTW Can't get onto Chipman's RET today. Possibly the large amount of traffic mourning VHB's blog shutdown...
Well good bye VHB and good luck to you on your 'real life'. Hey, we all have to have one!
:)
Yup, thanks VHB, and we hope to see you back again. It's been a real ride.
Thanks to you too Solipsist for keeping the fires burning. Don't feel you have to post every day. There's lots of action south of the border to keep on top of.
I'm suffering from VHB withdrawal. His comments are so interesting, and I got hooked. At first, I thought that his wife was upset about him 'wasting' so much time on his blog, but now I worry that something could be wrong. Please, VHB, let us know it's OK. Even if it IS the wife, that's OK. She is entitled to having more of your time, after all. But you have left a terrible void. I've never blogged before, so you can be sure that your fan-club is bigger than you know! My hubby and I are waiting to buy on the island, and as you know, there's not a realtor out there that will admit that this market is headed DOWN. We are following closely......you will all notice that the bad news never MAKES the news until AFTER THE FACT. Did you think that the big dips of the late 1970s, 1981, 1991, 1997 were made public while it was all going on??? Of course not.
I don't think it's right. I got addicted, and now the supplier's just hanging up his hat? After giving me the first two years for free?
*g*
I hope he's doing well.
Did you think that the big dips of the late 1970s, 1981, 1991, 1997 were made public while it was all going on??? Of course not.
Um, like they were closely guarded secrets or something? People may not notice ordinary corrections unless they are in the market, but the crash of 1981 was so huge that nobody who was around then could not remember it. And everyone in Vancouver knows someone who was around for it, even if they weren't themselves.
I think people know about the past quite well. They just think "this time it's different".
Just some personal anecdotes on current market experience in Fleetwood Surrey, Just bought upgraded to a house 3800 square feet on 8000 foot lot for $598K. Was on MLS about 1 week when we bought it, had some insider info that competing buyer would have paid full asking price of $609k had we not scooped it up. VERY little supply in this area for well built houses of this size.
Our townhouse was on market for less than 1 week and it sold OVER asking price of $329,800. We had 3 bidders going to battle over it. Had 4 offers total in less than 1 week. Had 10 showings this weekend alone (no open house BTW) Market has not cooled down too much from my limited exposure to it here.
But seems like the bears bloggers have gone hibernating eh ? ;) I will miss them though, I enjoy reading both sides and then coming to my own conclusions.
I expect a correction and am prepared financially and psychologically for it, but I also expect that in 20 years it will be worth more that it is now.
Unless interest rates go up dramatically or some unforeseen disaster, I do not see the sky falling as so many are eagerly predicting.
Take care and thanks for a great Blog site
That's an awesome graphic. Thanks solipsist.
Umm. Mouse slipped. That was VHB above.
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