Vegas Baby, Vegas!!
We just got back last night from a fun trip with our kids…well Sienna is 16 and Aidan is 20, so not sure they’re kids anymore!
And two of our nieces joined us as well…hello Olivia and Sarah!
We had pool time, shopping fun, saw some shows, had some amazing meals, and didn’t spend a single dollar on gambling, LOL!
We’re a weird Vegas bunch.
That’s us after the Mat Franco magic show. Aidan got called up on the stage to participate in one of Mat’s tricks.
If you look at the picture above closely you can see Aidan’s name on a $100 bill (that Dad supplied!)
Mat made it disappear and reappear inside a package of noodles, LOL. Yes, noodles.
We were all blown away by Mat’s show, A+ for sure!
Word is that we’ll be back to Vegas for another trip soon but next year two of them will be 21 and able to go to the clubs, so Dad is much less excited about the idea and may find an excuse to do something else with everyone 🙂
Speaking of magic tricks…
Ontario is in desperate need of one of its own right about now.
Check this out:
Ontario needs to build 1.5 million homes over the next ten years to satisfy our housing demand in this province.
And why does this involve the need of a magic trick?
Because that’s about DOUBLE what we have been on track to produce.
This week, a brand new report from the Smart Prosperity Institute was released.
Check out this key takeaway:
“We find that under the RoCA benchmark, Ontario had a pre-existing shortage of 471,500 homes in 2021, and will need an additional 1,034,900 homes to keep up with projected 2021-31 population growth, for a combined total of 1,506,400 net new homes needed over the next ten years.” (Source)
Again, this is double the amount of new homes that we currently produce in this province over a ten-year window.
And check out this new report from RBC that was released this week – it upset a lot of people who want to scream the 'sky is falling' on Canada’s housing market:
“Due to immigration, Canada’s population is growing much faster than other countries—over twice the pace of the OECD average over the past decade. This surge, combined with shrinking household sizes, will strengthen demand for housing (whether owned or rented) and act as a powerful counter to sliding sales and prices—eventually putting a floor under the correction.” (Source)
We have been banging the drum of population growth in this country, and in Ontario, for years now.
It’s great to see it finally getting more mainstream attention.
In real estate, there can both be short-term pain and long-term gains.
And that’s where we are right now.
Short-term interest rate pain and long-term supply/demand gains.
Armed with the right information, any “deals” real estate investors can find today may turn out to be an amazing opportunity.
And why do we think the interest rate pain is relatively short term?
Our friend Greg Foss (@FossGregFoss) summed it up nicely with this:
See the problem?
The U.S. needs more spending and more inflation to keep its debt party going.
It’s not a “want”…they literally “need” continued new spending.
Without it there’s no new cash to make the existing debt payments.
How does this relate to interest rates?
They can keep interest rates high only as long as inflation stays high.
If inflation comes tumbling down, then rates must come down or the system eats itself.
It’s just math.
So we can only handle high rates as long as inflation stays high.
If inflation drops then rates must do the same. #math
There’s some nuance here and of course things don’t happen overnight.
Over the longer term, Canada follows the U.S. interest rate moves and the U.S. seems poised to keep real rates negative (nominal rates minus inflation = real rates).
And negative real rates are a POSITIVE for hard assets, in our humble opinion.
So owning good income-producing properties in areas with high demand (Ontario, anyone?) along with some Bitcoin seems like a beautiful combo for our families.
And this is all just our opinion, of course.
We own a brokerage, so naturally we can be biased.
That’s why it’s very important to do your own research, go down the rabbit holes, and talk to friends who are interested in this stuff.
Knowledge is important right now.
It allows for clarity in the confusion.
Read the real estate reports linked above. Check out the book, The Bitcoin Standard, go deep.
Together we feel we can navigate a very strange next few years and come out living life on exactly our terms.
This week we have some exciting new stuff to share!
1. We have a brand new episode of The Your Life! Your Terms! Show with Anthony and Aidan chatting with long time Rock Star VIP Member, Conner Eagleson. Connor is super organized and focused and at the ripe age of 30 is poised to crush the next few years!
In an ideal world…
We believe your 20s are for building skills. Your 30s are for capitalizing on them. Your 40s are for really profiting from them. And the rest of your life is for choosing any new path that suits your fancy!
You can start this process at any age of course and throttle it to your liking.
2. And we have a new Rock Star Minutes episode with Dan Patton, from BM Select Mortgages, to discuss “trigger rates”. No one knew what these were a few months ago but with rates increasing it's more important than ever to be aware of them!
They’re both linked below for you!
Enjoy the weekend, everyone!
Tom & Nick
