Cyprus – a popular tourist destination for many Europeans – is in the centre of a high drama over the last month. Traditionally the days in Cyprus are long and sunny, people are poor and nothing much happens… Until it…
Opinions
$16,000,000,000,000
by Vasko DeLev • • 0 Comments
Just trying to figure out how big this number is can give you headache. Sixteen trillion dollars. Why should we care about it? Over the last few years we were flooded with information about bailouts and what the Fed (The…
Rules, not rates will kill the housing market
by Vasko DeLev • • 1 Comment
Who will suffer in the end? A cloud of uncertainty is hanging over the mortgage industry in Canada. High level tough talk from both the Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty and the top man at Bank of Canada, Mark Carney,…
Profile of the average mortgage borrower
by Vasko DeLev • • 0 Comments
Who said Canadian banks are safe? Everybody. And it might be true, if we know more about their main liability – the Canadian mortgage borrower. The average mortgage borrower in Canada is 39-year old, has a full time job and…
2012 Federal Budget: Friendly towards mortgages
by Vasko DeLev • • 0 Comments
It’s business as usual Minister Flaherty did not deliver yesterday any earth shattering news affecting the mortgage industry. Lenders and mortgage brokers were worrying that rumoured reduction of the maximum amortization from 30 to 25 years and an increase of…
What’s your builder’s profit margin?
by Vasko DeLev • • 0 Comments
Do higher home prices translate into higher profit for the construction companies? I’ve been always curious what does a builder make from selling a new home. There must be lots of variables here like location, the size of the home,…
Why your next new car is not likely to be electric
by Vasko DeLev • • 0 Comments
Good ideas often meet resistance Gas prices are high and people complain. Some bloggers have the nerve to suggest that gas will go to $8.0 per gallon. Since newspapers have an explanation for everything, they tell us “yes, it is…
BC government throws in a lifeline
by Vasko DeLev • • 0 Comments
Will the new home buyer’s incentives save the housing market? The newly released 2012 budget for the B.C. government contains a sort of a lifeline thrown to real estate market in Vancouver. Aside from all the “bubble talk” the government…
Predictions for 2012
by Vasko DeLev • • 2 Comments
Bold for some, boring for others, but affecting all of us… I don’t make predictions myself, but love reading what other people think about the future. Personally, I do not expect anything dramatic to happen during the next year. Stepping…
What is the true measure of wealth?
by Vasko DeLev • • 0 Comments
Cash, gold, real estate… or the private jet? Wealth is a very vague term. Even extremely rich people can’t agree on what it takes to be considered wealthy. For many simple folks it is to buy a large house, to…