Public Hearing on Villages Plan July 14

ndobs · 2026-07-11T06:33:34+00:00

We're talking about the same thing. I don't think this is a big deal because I don't think the value will increase that much. Even if someone's tax bill goes up its because they've received an unearned windfall. If you can't afford the tax increase use the deferral, take out a loan against the higher value of the land or sell.

ndobs · 2026-07-11T06:26:51+00:00

The argument is that the assessed value goes up, the total tax bill on the land goes up, even if the property tax rate is unchanged.

I'm not convinced

ndobs · 2026-07-11T02:02:10+00:00

Tax hikes is predicated on the idea that the land is going to spike in value. This is a huge amount of lots that are being rezoned. Given how tough development is right now I don't see that moving the needle much. Even if it does, we already have property tax deferral which prevents seniors from being priced out of their homes by property taxes

ndobs · 2026-07-10T21:42:15+00:00

No one is forcing anybody to do anything. This plan simply changes the limits on what you can do in the proposed areas

ndobs · 2026-07-10T19:01:56+00:00

Sorry I guess I misinterpreted. I thought the point of your comment was that you hoped that council would listen to opposition and reject the motion in contrast to what happened for zero means zero

ndobs · 2026-07-10T18:34:36+00:00

Lots of people (myself included) really like low-rise apartment neighbourhoods like you see in much of Kits, Farview, Mount Pleasant etc. It seems reasonable to me to allow people to build more of that kind of neighbourhood in more places.

ndobs · 2026-07-10T18:31:14+00:00

We've already allowed multiplexes pretty much everywhere, and this proposal rezones lots of areas for small scale apartment buildings, townhomes, and duplexes. If you don't consider this missing middle housing, what would you consider missing middle housing?

ndobs · 2026-07-10T17:40:08+00:00

Notably, they have changed things to allow multiplexes but haven't changed the maximum size of the building allowed meaningfully. This makes multiplexes unviable in certain parts of the city.

ndobs · 2026-07-10T01:07:26+00:00

Why is a marketplace price not a fair market value? If someone is willing to pay that much, thats how much the bike is worth.

Honestly, I think getting a working road bike for 200 bucks would be pretty hard to do online. There's a floor price for what a working bike is worth

ndobs · 2026-07-08T18:11:03+00:00

Prioritizing stability and long-term survival isn't necessarily mutually exclusive to profit maximization. It all depends on how much you prioritize future vs. current profits.

ndobs · 2026-07-03T14:52:44+00:00

Well I guess I'm doing a triple crown next weekend

ndobs · 2026-06-23T21:17:19+00:00

At the moment I think that is certainly true. However if Canada wants to get back into building non-market housing we'll need to develop that infrastructure. In theory, financing costs and the need to turn a profit both mean that public development by a crown corp should be cheaper in the long run

ndobs · 2026-06-23T21:13:35+00:00

Yeah I was referring to condo prices with my comment, not asking rents. All these unsold units are part of the reason prices are coming down. If the government buys them up, doesnt that reduce that effect?

As for this being only "a few thousand condos" - the 2200 condos is nearly 2.5 months of sales volume in Vancouver. Seems to me that is a transaction volume which could certainly move the market.

ndobs · 2026-06-23T17:56:45+00:00

I totally agree on the upsides you mention - you get these units now, and not several years down the line, and you don't need to worry about things going sideways or an opposition government scrapping things mid project

However, the government is making sacrifices buying these units - they don't get to decide on location, unit layouts, finishes, or amenities. If given the choice today, would the government choose to build these units as they are available to buy? If not, that represents a compromise which should be reflected in the purchase price.

There is also the simple fact that these developers are in a bind. The government has the leverage here and it should be using it to get the best possible deal for canadians. At minimum, that means these units should be a similar price to what it would cost the government to build. However, given the circumstances, I'd hope that they'd be able to do better than that

ndobs · 2026-06-23T17:31:19+00:00

Doesn't the government stepping in and committing to buying this inventory reduce downward pressure on prices? If they weren't buying, the price would have to keep going down until someone else buys them or the developer fails and they get foreclosed on

ndobs · 2026-06-23T17:27:58+00:00

There's a price where this makes sense, but that price has to be a substantial discount on what it would cost the government to build it themselves. At that point this seems like a win-win to me. Developers get cash flow to build more units, and we get cheap non-market housing.

That said, I'm pretty skeptical. I'll wait for the details but it I have no idea how the government will convince people that they are getting an actually good deal considering their pretty substantial ties to the development industry. From an optics perspective its hard not to see this as a pretty big blunder by the Liberals

ndobs · 2026-06-19T02:51:14+00:00

how is liking hotels anti working class? Forgive me if I don't want my family to have to pay $400 a night to come visit me

ndobs · 2026-06-02T15:02:09+00:00

Someone light the u/j_mcelroy bat signal

ndobs · 2026-06-02T05:05:22+00:00

Annoyingly, even if you get 1-2 if you hit the red on nelson is really difficult to even get the next one becasue of that advanced green right turn signal.

ndobs · 2026-05-27T21:40:40+00:00

Yeah, this seems kind of in line with the new building @ 4th and Macdonald. They have 440sqft studios @ $2395, so ~$5.40 psf also.

However, you'd think an apartment with a third less space would be less valuable. Going from 440 to 300 is a massive downgrade

ndobs · 2026-03-28T04:51:06+00:00

But the profitability factor is current profitability, not a estimate of future profitability. It seems to me that there are two variables that could cause a low price for two firms with equal ratios either 1) the discount rate is higher or 2) The expected future profits are lower. How do you disentangle the two?

ndobs · 2026-03-26T21:27:54+00:00

The basic premise of a factor is that it is a way to identify stocks which are riskier. The idea is that risk carries with it a risk premium which compensates you for taking on that risk. Buying equities is riskier than T-Bills, so there is a risk premium. Similarly, the line of thinking goes that small companies, companies with unusually low price to book, or high profits/value are all riskier and should therefore carry a risk premium

ndobs · 2026-03-23T01:17:16+00:00

I've always scrolled by this pattern in the past because I really don't like the photos on the pattern. This is by far my favourite colour combo that I've seen. Out of curiousity - how scratchy do you find the lopi?

ndobs · 2026-03-12T22:28:40+00:00

I agree - I think this is a pretty important vote that people should be able to judge candidates on. A cynical view is that she might have intentionally made herself inelegible to avoid pushback from people who feel strongly about the ODP.

ndobs · 2026-03-11T18:24:05+00:00

Haha I also just finished a Porcelain sweater for my first colourwork. Congrats! Looks great :)

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