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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Jones who wrote (935)	10/24/2001 9:44:13 PM
From: bill	Respond to of 306849

Dave, I'm not seeing any distressed sales here on the west coast of Canada. I've noticed that there are sold signs up here and there even though this is past the usual selling season (summer until school starts in the fall). May be that the prices have dropped a bit but a house down the street listed at 450,000 Canada bucks (150 american dollars and a roll of salami)sold within two weeks. Heard a rumour that American retirees have been buying homes because of the low Canadian dollar. That could be holding up house prices. The market is so regional that it is hard to get any broad picture. There are quite a few one industry towns--pulp mills, fishing, tourism--so the Japanese downturn really hurts them. Those places that were hurting (coal towns) are doing better. However, since we're exporters of natural resources and importers of tourists, there's a general economic malaise. If Xmas retail sales are really down then a lot of small businesses will close. The banks, I know, are not pressing people for payment on their business loans. I feel we're in a kind of waiting pattern. If the recession is shallow and things pick up in Q2 02, then Jan, Feb will have been the time to buy. If things drop off a cliff at the end of Q2 cash will be king. I know that I'm getting a lot of applications for jobs from early retirees who put their money in the market and now are back in the market desperate for jobs. The 55 freedom has turned out to be a disaster for a lot of people. Don't know if there are enough of them to affect the market. Might get some nice retirement waterfront property at a discount.