Random predictions for the future!
I've been having quite a bit of fun researching silly little things lately. Like Real Estate prices in different parts of North America and using ex-shipping containers in housing projects. Also, how wealth is created and destroyed in general. I find it fascinating how many areas there are that once were economically prosperous but now have huge amounts of abandoned housing, such as large parts of Michigan. There are even places in Florida and New York that are incredibly cheap due to the bad influences that abandoned housing tends to create. I wonder how long it will be until all of the urban land... yes, I mean all of it, is used. Urban sprawl can't spread on forever.
I find it fascinating just how valuable land in urban Alberta has become. Most sites I checked state two major factors. Firstly, $70 a barrel Oil, secondly Alberta is the only province without PST. Alberta still has lots of open land, it doesn't make a ton of sense in my mind that Oil extraction should boost housing prices in Fort McMurray as substantially as it has. Also, why are housing prices in Edmonton being strongly affected? Are there really that many people interested in a five hour commute to work?
Anyway, there are two underlying factors that affect the price of houses... and everything else for that matter. The cost of the labour involved and the cost of the materials.
Since the cost of labour varies significantly from location to location, I predict that we will see more housing that is heavily pre-fabricated in areas that have lower labour costs. I suspect that housing will also be more shippable in the future. One risk of building property that is non-shippable is as land-values in an area change, the most practical sort of housing change. There are plenty of projects underway in third world countries to make ISO standard housing. I'm not too sure if there are ISO or equivalent standards yet. It's just a matter of time...
I predict that some of the areas in various countries of the world that need rehabilitation will be purchased by either major multinationals or different countries. We've all read in History books about how the U.S.A bought Alaska from Russia for example. Here in Suwon there are entire districts of cookie cutter apartment sky-scrapers owned by big companies such as Samsung. Samsung has a big engineering think-tank in Suwon; most likely as the land costs are much lower than in Seoul. Huge apartment buildings house Engineers from all over the world. South Korea's rich are very wealthy despite South Korea being a knowledge based economy. Knowedge based economies are not strongly location specific. The soil is quite poor, the air quality is deplorable at times... The air conditioning costs are large... and there really isn't that much land. There are no natural resources.. not much reason to stay here. Shouldn't it then make sense for some of the rich to purchase land in other areas of the world? They could Cut their housings costs for their staff and becoming richer. How long until a big company here cuts a deal with a poor district in Canada? I'm sure it wouldn't be an impossible undertaking to move all of South Korea to Saskatchewan. It would take a little bit of planning.. but strategically it could make a lot of sense. Maybe Hyundai can buy Flint,Michigan, or Buffalo,NY?
I recall wondering in Social Studies back in High School if some day Corporations would have more power than countries. Corporate power seems greater than government power here already. I wonder whether a company or a country will end up buying underdeveloped North American land first? Perhaps the degree I took makes more sense than I initially thought :)
Housing rant
I had not intended to talk about housing in Alberta.. But taking a cursory glance, I see that rent controls have been put in place! That's completely insane! This will if anything throw the market into a greater turmoil. Rent controls has never worked efficiently in any market ever.... Why oh why? I see there's a good deal of price diversity of rental as well. See http://www.places4rent.com/search/searchr.asp?LOCID=97&DPQ=0&QAT=524&BDO=3&BD1=1&BTO=3&BT1=1&RAO=6&RA1=395&RA2=1300
I love it how the how one of the best properties on the page is half the cost of the others.. Though that will likely change by the time you look at this post. That's just completely insane.
I hope this is all figured out before I return..
How many cleaning products does one really need?
I have not bothered purchasing any specific grease cleaners, or glass cleaners or any other sort of brand name cleaners, air fresheners, deoiderizers etc. Well, that's not completely true. I have purchased laundry detergent... How can that be, you might ask?
I've been using common acids and bases frequently used in cooking. I enjoy using vinegar for cleaning mirrors and glass. I also appreciate the versatility of baking soda. There are so many uses for it! Sprinkle some in a pair of shoes that have soaked up much sweat for example.
I've also been using laundry detergent to wash my floor.. probably not the most environmentally friendly thing... but it sure beat buying an extra cleaning product. I'm happy that I don't have a cupboard full of cleaning products that contain who knows what. I don't happen to have the link handy... but there are several websites that go into detail about how many cleaning products are sold at a huge premium to such basics as vinegar and baking soda usually aren't more effective... often have shorter shelf-lives etc.