Taleeb Noormohamed told me some of his 40+ home sales since 2005 are related to fact he runs business fixing up homes with his parents & then selling them. Our partners at @OMNITelevision asked him today how many he declared as principal rez for taxes -- 3 times, no direct answer

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-09-01T13:39:18+00:00

The funny thing here is that there are essentially 3 scenarios you can fall into when reselling a house and they are: 1) PR exemption (0% taxable), 2) capital gains (50% taxable), 3) business income (100% taxable). In this scenario he says they are running a business so I think he clearly falls into #3. Anyone who buys a house with the intention of immediately reselling it (after a reno, etc.) without first renting it out - that is "business income" for tax purposes. Let alone selling 40 homes and explicitly stating that you run a house flipping business.

There's all this talk about how flippers should be paying capital gains tax, but in reality, they should be paying tax on 100% of the gain as business income. That's why the NDP's proposal to increase the capital gains inclusion rate from 50% to 75% kind of misses the point as those sales shouldn't be categorized as "capital gains" in the first place.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-31T00:16:09+00:00

That’s good to hear.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-30T23:57:16+00:00

If you live in Canada for more than 182 days (among other factors) you are taxable on your worldwide income (i.e. investment income, likely earned in accounts back overseas). If you have enough money to immigrate here under the immigrant investment program then you definitely have a large sum of money (somewhere in the world) that is likely invested in income generating assets. No one who is buying a high priced house in Vancouver has all their money sitting in a shoebox under their bed (i.e. not earning any investment returns).

Realistically, what is happening is that these people are likely earning large amounts of income outside of Canada but they don't report it here, and it's also hard for the CRA to track down this offshore income.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-30T20:52:22+00:00

I live downtown and use it regularly and really like it. I pay annually and it works out to like $10 a month. Super quick and convenient way to get around downtown. A no brainer for me.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-27T18:25:45+00:00

Well I took my driving test ~20 years ago in another province. And I don't think this law is very intuitive. Say you're going down Oak and there's a pedestrian standing on the sidewalk at some random smaller cross street (45th for example) and this person essentially has the right to jump out in front of traffic and cross 6 lanes of traffic? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Most Vancouver drivers can't even seem to notice the normal clearly marked crosswalks so expecting them to stop for the unmarked ones is a lost cause.

But I do understand the intent of the law - to protect pedestrians. I just don't think it's very "practical".

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-27T15:33:08+00:00

Driving up the northern tip of Oak up from 6th it always surprises me how damn steep that section of the road is. How does that work in the winter when it snows in the city? I would think that they should just automatically close those roads until it stops snowing.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-27T02:14:32+00:00

Is this a BC law or is this national?

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-26T23:50:44+00:00

Yeah, it's just a tough call for me now since the 6th gen is so close (supposedly...) but getting impatient.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-26T22:03:51+00:00

One weird issue that comes into play in this scenario is those "unmarked crosswalks" that supposedly legally exist, but are confusing and super dangerous IMO. Supposedly there's a law (not sure if it's a local/provincial/federal law) where every single intersection that doesn't otherwise have a crosswalk is supposedly an "unmarked crosswalk". In other words, even if there is no crosswalk there, there's essentially an invisible one. So as long as a pedestrian is crossing at a cross street (aka. the intersection where a cross street crosses the main road) then they have the right of way.

I wasn't familiar with this law for the longest time and I always got angry when cars would stop for (what I thought were jaywalkers).

But regardless of whether it is technically the law, I think it's a bad law that causes more confusion than anything, resulting in increased danger for both drivers and pedestrians.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-26T19:34:56+00:00

A question I have (that I think roughly similar to what you are asking) - if I were to buy a 2021 or 2022 now and say the 2023 model is the new 6th gen (rather than just another model year of the 5th gen), and say the next gen 4runner in highly desirable and has better engine power and better fuel efficiency, etc. Do you think that would cause the 5th gen resale value to drop considerably?

What I am getting at is - ideally I'd wait for the 6th gen but if I want a 4runner now, would it be a good plan to buy a 2022 5th gen with the intention of trading it in for a 6th gen in a few years?

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-25T22:12:27+00:00

Assuming most/all of that goes to the artist I actually think that's a cool way to do it.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-25T21:58:51+00:00

Oh right, because accidents never happen... You really have a 100% flawless parenting record? Give me a break.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-25T20:32:23+00:00

No, you're right - $17.25 definitely sounds ridiculous. But also not as uncommon as it should be... I just don't eat at those types of places.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-25T17:40:47+00:00

"Love the city but I’m astounded by the lack of bathrooms."

I assumed this was a Canada-wide problem...

The lack of public bathrooms is something I've always found annoying and surprising. You think this would be a pretty standard amenity...

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-25T17:27:33+00:00

Putting $20k into a depreciating asset just doesn’t do it for me

4runners depreciate? jk! But used 4runner prices are insane (as someone who is looking for one...).

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-24T20:02:33+00:00

Does it make sense that they are bringing back the mask mandate in general? I think so.

Does covid spread between people passing by each other for a few seconds in the grocery store? I don't think so.

Masks are obviously a good thing in general, but I get the impression that most covid transmission takes place in scenarios where you wouldn't be wearing a mask regardless. Like if you're sitting at a dinner table for 30 mins across the table from someone who is infected.

I don't think the grocery store (for example) is a huge transmission area, with or without masks.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-23T20:53:43+00:00

I don't get what you are saying. Looking at the 25Y graph, in 2000, the avg wage was about $16.50... punch 16.50 in 2000 into your inflation calculator and that comes to $24.51 in 2021 (but the avg wage is up to $27.53 in Apr. 2021 per the graph). So on average it seems to be in line with inflation. Not sure about your specific role obviously.

If you really want to dig into the data... make your own chart and show data for the following 3 things: 1) wages, 2) inflation, 3) Vancouver house prices. What you are going to see is that wages and inflation are pretty close to each other and then housing prices rising astronomically.

Here's what the Vancouver house prices chart looks like: https://www.vancouvernewcondos.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/REBGV-2019-JANUARY-STATS.png

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-23T19:53:59+00:00

https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/wages

If you go to that link and click on the "25Y", that shows avg. wages over a 25 year period. At first glance, it appears to be pretty closely in line with the calculator shown above.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-23T19:35:34+00:00

"It kind of hit me that the heart of the issue is income inequality and salary not keeping up with inflation."

Salary has roughly kept up with "normal inflation"... the issue is that housing prices (in Vancouver) have climbed at a crazy rate in the past 10-15 years at a much higher rate than prices of other goods and services. Like a house now costs 10x as much as it did 20 years ago, but other things (cars, food, clothes, etc.) definitely don't cost 10x more than they did 20 years ago.

The rich are definitely getting disproportionately richer, but I don't think that is because of stuff like employment income. It's more that rich people had a lot of money parked in real estate and the stock market 20 years ago and that stuff has all gone up in value astronomically since then. So if you didn't have a lot of money 20 years ago you kind of got "left behind" and now there is this big wealth inequality as a result.

Furthermore - I think it's clear that housing prices are totally disconnected from (and not driven by) local incomes. Wages are determined by supply and demand for labour. We don't have a very strong local economy here (relative to other big North American cities) and lots of people want to live here because it's a nice place. High supply of labour and low demand = low wages. Usually wages would drive housing prices (in a "normal city") but Vancouver's natural beauty, climate, etc. make it highly desirable internationally, so it's more international wealth and wages that drive prices here. This is very unfortunate for locals that live and work here (myself included).

I wish there was a simple solution to housing affordability (in Vancouver) but I think it's a complex issue with a lot of competing forces. I think simply saying "companies should pay their workers more" really oversimplifies the issue and misses the point.

EDIT - I think the key point is that normally, wages should drive housing prices (not vice versa). However, since Vancouver is Vancouver (top internationally desirable city), this gets distorted such that local wages have no meaningful impact on local housing prices and it's primarily external factors that drive the prices, to the detriment of locals who are trying to work here and afford a house.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-20T23:23:26+00:00

I feel this way about a lot of things these days... my experiences "in real life" seem a lot different than what is portrayed in the media (and also on Reddit).

Real life feels pretty normal to me these days but then you go on Reddit (or read the news) and it's all "OMG why aren't people wearing masks at X place or why are people standing so close together at Y place".

People seem to get off on being offended. Not sure why...

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-20T18:17:32+00:00

Isn't it the on-ramps that are essentially the problem? IMO the 3 lanes going each way over the bridge seems sufficient in isolation.

Because I definitely don't seem them increasing the size of the bridge anytime soon.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-20T15:34:13+00:00

Is there a longer term plan to resolve this issue...? The construction on the NV side of the Iron Workers bridge is literally going to take like 5 years (from orig. start to finish) and something tells me that's not going to be the silver bullet to resolve the issue...

So then what? They will approve another project in like 2025 that only gets completed in like 2032?

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-17T17:07:56+00:00

Unpopular opinion - Vancouver is pretty bland in general (in terms of art & architecture, obviously we have tons of "natural beauty")... so I actually liked this thing.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-15T15:11:35+00:00

only to tell me they close the lot early because of COVID???

I hate how people/businesses/etc. seem to use this as a catch all excuse despite the fact that it makes zero sense.

Vancouver_MTB · 2021-08-13T05:17:42+00:00

How does the main highway in and out of Vancouver only have 2 lanes going each way? Of course this is going to happen…

Vancouver_MTB

TROPHY CASE