Ferry fees are one factor $100 bucks for a midweek run back and forth with a couple of kids, add in gas and ferry food and all the other goodies and that week-end getaway is MUCH cheaper to rent than own. AND who is going to look after it while you are busy earning the dough to run it? What happens when pipes freeze in winter, or a big branch comes through the roof in a windy storm or the septic tank backs up from a tree root.
Then there is the wait at the ferry terminal..and did I mention the cost. No wonder ferry ridership has collapsed.
Looks like the ferry corp will be pulling out of sponsoring the Canucks. Why would a Public Ferry corp sponsor a very profitable professional sport's team? Why would they have a luxury box to entertain guests? What guests? probably the same reason they pay the CEO over a Mill.
If they are trying to support the community, how about supporting 1000 Peewee teams instead?
Back to the SSC. The sellers there are pretty much under-water if they bought after 2006 from what I could tell. They are fighting hard to keep the prices up, even though demand has dried up. The price adjustments follow the market down, though I did see one sale for $1M on an $1.4 M asking. Nice one buyer!
Back to this town. Inventory is up. Up to October 2010 levels. Now it gets interesting. Where do we go from here. Sellers last year pulled their listings and then in the New Year we had the HAM invasion and optimism about the economy -remember the bank economists were still saying the Bank of Canada would raise rates this summer (which shows you how little use that field of 'science' really is)
Now our dynamic is slightly different. There is talk of a double dip. The B of C is running scared and the stock market has taken a nasty little tumble. Of course there is still HAM money and gold mining executives are sitting on some big bonuses, so there will always be money flowing. Heck, even in the US where they have a critical recession with 10+% unemployed, someone found a few bucks under the cushions to buy a $16 Million Lamborghini - and no he didn't work for BC Ferries.
