One of my favourite movies is Owning Mahowny. It’s a Canadian movie starring the fantastic Philip Seymour Hoffman as a banker with a gambling problem. The best line is when he tells his girlfriend, “I don’t have a gambling problem.” His denial is as outrageous as it is sad.
I’m sure an equally good movie could be made about a realtor with a sales problem. If you’re a screenwriter, I encourage you to run with it. I even recommend taking quotes from this North Shore News article where a 20 per cent correction is referred to as a “hiccup.”
There’s roughly a half-dozen classic quotes littered across the story. My fave is from “Special Agent Skinner” (an X-Files joke, not the realtor’s actual name). This is what the real guy has to say:
“We’re not into a tragic situation where people shouldn’t have bought last year. The North Shore is kind of a microcosm in Greater Vancouver that is extremely special… We’re really bulletproof for our lifetimes and beyond.”
Considering where we are in the market cycle, this quote is almost impossible to believe. I’m left to wonder whether the speaker had a mishap with a time machine and thinks the year is 2006. Seriously though, how is this comment supposed to be interpreted by a rational person? We’re not talking about an everyday optimistic opinion. Look at the words. Bulletproof for our lifetimes and beyond.
So much for the hype being dead. The spin is alive and foaming at the mouth.
Photo credit: ThinkPanama
August 21, 2008 at 10:54 pm
The only problem wit’ Owning Mahoney was Minnie Driver’s “Canadian” accent, which cracked me up every time she spoke. It was like Newfoundland got drunk, passed out in the Ottawa Valley, and then barfed Texas.
August 21, 2008 at 11:12 pm
To Agent Skinner
No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.
– Michel de Montaigne
August 22, 2008 at 10:52 am
We’re really bulletproof for our lifetimes and beyond.
Hmm.. That sounds remarkably familiar, I wonder if Skinner posts on local blogs under the handles SATV/Krrish/Time etc. I just can’t believe anyone would say that in the press using their real name.
August 22, 2008 at 12:13 pm
a “hiccup” or what most people will call it, a correction was long overdue. A 20% correction will bring the value of the house The Urban Dweller owns in East Van down to about $620,000. Since 2004 its gained an approximately $200,000 in value, after a correction takes place. But then again The Urban Dweller bought numerous properties at the begining of the cycle and am smoking fat cigars and enjoying the good life after making a fortune this boom.
Bring on the downturn, to the Urban Dweller its just an opportunity to accumulate more wealth.
August 22, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Urban Dweller you are referring to yourself in the third person,
disconcerting to say the least…….
August 23, 2008 at 1:12 am
Gotta love the ghosts of West Van real estate past: these people are dead and don’t even know it…
JULY gave back all of 2007’s increase…August will give back most of 2006’s gains…gawd only knows what happens between September and the new year…
But hey: the Pollyanna’s of West Van can wrap themselves in the North Shore Nuze to keep warm this winter….
September 30, 2008 at 6:10 pm
“Although Greater Vancouver’s housing market is showing distinct signs of cooling off, North Shore homeowners have no reason to worry — at least not yet — according to real estate agents.”
Or, said another way:
“Greater Vancouver’s housing market is cooling faster than a frozen tundra, but the people who want to sell you overpriced real estate say you have nothing to worry about!”