Why Vancouver Real Estate Is So Damn Expensive: Here’s What Happened In The World Today

The Daily 5 is Sharp’s essential reading list for what’s happening in the world today. Make sure to follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the Sharp Insider newsletter to stay up to date.

1. Is shadow-flipping to blame for Vancouver’s house bubble?

The process involves selling sales contracts before the deal closes, sometimes multiple times, for higher prices than the homeowner paid, and is said to be pushing the Vancouver real estate market to perilously high levels.

“It’s no longer a market connected to basic fundamentals. It’s speculative – driven by investors,” Vancouver MLA David Eby told the Globe and Mail.

2. Canadian fighter jets are coming home from Syria

The government announced the jets will leave the war zone February 22nd, while ground forces are set to increase to 830 from 650. The mission will continue to be “non-combat,” Justin Trudeau said in a press conference today.

3. With sanctions against Iran lifted, the country has become a new tourist hotspot

“Indeed, for Iran to change,” Maclean’s Adnan Kahn writes, “it must do so on its own terms, a fact Iranians have been trying to convey for years. Now, as their country re-emerges, Iranians are again cautiously optimistic.”

4. What can you do if you’re in prison but still want to bet on the Super Bowl?

From Vice, a first-person account of how federal inmates in US prisons are gambling on pro sports. According to the anonymous author, one bookie in the facility made over $30, 000 last year.

5. Will streaming music kill songwriting?

“For now, terrestrial radio is holding out,” songwriter Savan Kotecha tells the New Yorker, “But radio could go away, because everyone has phones. And once streaming gets into cars in a big way, it’s over.”