Leo Spalteholz
@leospalteholz
Victoria YYJ. I post mostly about 1. Housing advocacy with @homesforliving.ca 2. Renewables, climate, EVs. Real job in work integrated learning
Equally positive as the >50% summer generation is the ~28% winter low.
It’s unfortunate that Saanich forgot that buildings can have more than one storey when they built this fire hall
I enjoy driving around Saanich with all the new protected bike infrastructure
Island folks know nothing beats that “last car on the ferry feeling”
Love it when I go for my usual walk and a bunch of new housing suddenly pops up
Remember all the fear mongering about how big companies were gonna buy up all the houses? Another myth about why house prices are high debunked by data
My dad built our house back in the 90s. He could have never have afforded to have it built, it only worked because he did much of the work himself and was his own general contractor. Could he have passed an english-language technical exam on the building code at the time? Hard to say
This is even more stark when looking at the percent of single family homes built by owner builders. After the exam was introduced, it dropped by more than half. Great for the industry, not so great for anyone wanting to build their own homes, which was quite common in rural areas.
In 2016 BC introduced the owner builder exam. That is, anyone wanting to build their own home would have to pass a completely useless exam that did nothing to improve the quality of their build. No other province requires this. It did do one thing, completely kill people building their own homes
A mini split heat pump for under $600? Couldn’t resist. Let’s see how the DIY install goes
With Site C online, better water flow, and some more renewables on the grid, net energy in BC looks better. 6 month average sharply higher and in the green, first time in 3 years But snowpacks are low, we need to continue rapidly adding other renewables to the grid to stay there.
I try to learn a new useless skill every year. Last year handstands, this year unicycle
Couple months ago this sign said $1350. Abundance works. Let’s keep it up.
What is your take on CMHC's conclusion that the balanced vacancy rate is quite drastically different depending on the market? I haven't seen evidence of this, except in Quebec cities where vacancies seem structurally lower considering rent movement than other cities.
I don't mind AI for virtual staging with furniture in listing photos, but sometimes it's outright lying. In this case the AI added a countertop (blocking a door, lol), two extra doors, and extra lighting including pot lights magically embedded into the HVAC ducting. This should be banned.
They were gonna let some homes be built here too but it was lunchtime
Whether he was for it or against it, I’m certainly happy for the power it’s producing now
Does zoning give us fewer homes and thus higher prices? Yes, beyond a shadow of a doubt. And you don’t even need an economics background to know that’s true. Look at the skyline of any Canadian city to see the power of these artificial constraints