As reported in the fall, Millenium water, the second name for the briefly proud Olympic Village of the 2010 Winter Olympics, went bankrupt after 6 months of trying to sell itself as an overpriced luxury condo village.

This month, the former Olympic Village has been renamed yet again to the ridiculously parochial "The Village on False Creek" and will try once more to lure unwary buyers. Funny how marketers are convinced that all that's required to smooth away a debacle is a new name and brand statement.

They might want to try something else.

Like the expected death of a sick and elderly relative, the demise of Millenium Water in Vancouver---expected for months by many housing realists---is still a shock. Perhaps we secretly hoped that the laughable boosterism of the Vancouver Real Estate industry was somehow going to pull it through. RIP

For the last 100 years houses have primarily provided shelter and a hedge against inflation. It's only recently that they've become a widely used source of speculation and --- via home equity loans --- collateral for collosal household debt.

Talk about closing the door after the horse has bolted...

The Paris-based OECD, a club of wealthy nations that includes Canada and 32 other economies, suggested Ottawa could require home buyers to put up bigger down payments if they want their mortgages federally insured. The government could also consider forcing banks to disclose the sensitivity of their mortgage revenues to rate hikes.

Finally, media stories are starting to confess what the data has been showing for more than two years. The Vancouver bubble is bursting. In fact the recent stimulus-induced bounce (a temporary reverse in the decline that was just getting started) has boosted the peak even higher, which makes looking over the precipice even more vertigo-inducing than it was two years ago.

Nice to see the usually smug Bob Rennie looking seasick for a change...

"Our analysis depicts a coming generational transition in the housing market that will upset the historic balance of buyers and sellers. Residents in most states are net buyers of homes well into their 50s. The resulting upward pressure on demand by the large baby boom generation will soon peak, and after age 70 they will be net sellers in all except three states."

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Despite major Canadian banks urging caution, neither the Finance Minister nor the governor of the Bank Of Canada are willing to risk the public wrath of forcing property price declines by raising interest rates.

Of course by not doing so, they are deferring a much bigger financial and political problem for the future---precisely the behaviour that led to the global financial crisis in the first place.

Garth Turner

In Vancouver and the Lower Mainland right now, not being a real estate crackhead is weird. Thinking people who pay $900,000 for an unrenovated schleppy Fifties bung in a dodgy area are delusional is weird. Not succumbing to the pressure of helicopter parents and nesting spouses to throw yourself into a pit of mortgage debt for your entire adult life is weird.

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