Never trust the 'expert's. Isn't Vancouver entering a period like Germany and Japan where the housing prices will remain grossly over inflated for a long period of time?

saying "now is a bad time" is like saying "this president sucks" - in the short term it's true but in the long term it's not. "Now is a bad time" means compared to a year or so from now, you will buy at a slightly worse price. Overall, prices will rise in the long run and your investment will be a decent one.

Don't get me wrong, that's not to say you shouldn't or should buy now, that's just to say that most people don't know shit about real estate and just know the phrase "now is a bad time to buy", which they have permanently engrained in their heads.

Very unlikely given the current housing market but that doesn't mean it never occurred before. I bought my first home 10 years ago when prices were quite a bit lower and the climate at the time was better to buy for rental purposes. It has a clean title now so it's pretty much pure profit here on out, but there are still expenses to maintaining a rental property plus the usual small headaches of dealing with tenants.

I'm not sure the terms or length of his mortgage, but I'm assuming the traditional 25 year mortgage is what he has. For that length, you have to consider the interest on the loan that he has to pay, plus the any rising expenditures (strata fees, etc). You can write off the interest portion of the mortgage, but since your brother already is showing a loss for this rental property, no point.

These are all factors you must consider before you decide to enter yourself into a negative cash-flow situation while banking on the fact that your property values will rise. However, everyone's risk adversity is different and some will decide that it is worth it.

You might as well contact a real estate or find one that you like. You don't pay them, the seller does. They'll work for you for free essentially, and if they're good they'll try their best to find you exactly what you want.

All those websites are nice but nothing beats access to MLS.

Try to find a good up and coming realtor, all the big name realtor's are douches and you'll deal with their inexperienced sidekicks (assistants).

@AWDTurboLuvr:
i BELIEVE (not 100% sure), that all interest etc has been factored in to that situation. so, my bro only does have to spend ~1600 a month for pretty much most of the future. and is rentinng for ~1500 (for one year at the moment). ASSUMING he does get more tenants, or this one decides to stay longer, than his plan will workout the way i stated above. a 100$ loss a month is not that much. if he simply drives less for example, than he can easily save 100 from gas money.

my bro and mom are super careful with money. and what i posted was their conclusion through months of calculating. so im assuming everything is going according to plan ;p

of course, i agree with you that there are so many factors into this. and every situation is different.

i do believe investing in property is still a good place to put your money. this of course, is assuming the person is making enough money for living, saving some for any emergencies, and still having extra money. rather invest that extra money into something...

It's okay if your long-term outlook is positive. But do not disregard the fact that the price you pay today is also very important. The sense I get from reading some of responses are that if you buy a house today and it might go down 5 - 10% the next few years. But in the long run, housing will still rebound and you will end up with a very nice return. This is a very dangerous assumption, you always have to keep in mind the risk vs reward factor.

To quote John Maynard Keynes: "The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead."

Wow! I'm amazed at the amount of misinformation there is in this thread?!?!

Have you people even worked out what the cost of a home after paying off your mortgage is? Do you even know what the average price of a Single Family Home is at the moment? Do you know what the average price of a Town House is? Do you know what the average price of the Condo is? How is the market comparable to other markets in CANADA?

Do you know the added cost of owning a property? Insurance? Maintenance? etc?


http://www.yattermatters.com/wp/wp-c...11-01-2010.jpg

lol that's why i'm not buying shit til i live in a dual-income family :hotbaby:

I bought a townhouse in Yaletown with a 2 car private garage in 2005 for $500K.

Five years later it is worth around $900K -- simply by inflation.

All the while - variable mortgage rates have been the lowest they've ever been.

Time to buy is now

So sell it?

interest rates is indeed low and i was only able to lock at 3.49 percent... should i go variable?

This is sloppy math. I'm not saying that your brother's situation is or is not viable but if we're talking about an investment, you have to run numbers more carefully. Don't forget to add:

- property taxes
- special assessments (I am assuming the place is strata-titled, and am assuming that the above $1500 figure includes monthly strata)
- realtor's fees when the place is disposed of
- vacancies. Believe it or not, the place will not always be occupied.
- if we're talking about investments, don't forget the following:
- the opportunity cost of investing the down payment
- the opportunity cost of investing the $100/mo
- the time cost of being a landlord

I'm glad that you've done well (and I'm not being sarcastic). But how and when are you going to realize your gain?

Sky's post is worth reading.

Something to keep in mind about that graph that Sky_2000 posted - it sure looks awesome - it even looks like something bought in '81, also at a peak, is worth bazillions of dollars today. However, due to inflation, anybody who bought in '81 at the peak didn't technically break even (in real dollars) until about 20 years later... and this is discounting property taxes and maintenance paid in the interim.

http://www.canadabubble.com/charts/6...ice-chart.html

Have a look at the "Vancouver nominal and real" price chart.

Anyways, buy a place if you want it/need it/afford it or whatever. I wouldn't count on it being a guaranteed path to riches.

Currently the Vancouver Real Estate Market:

Stock: ALL TIME HIGH
Prices: ALL TIME HIGH
Sales: ALL TIME LOW
Interest Rates: ALL TIME LOW

Inflation between 2005 and 2010 is 9.1% according to CPI statistics. Going by your thesis, your $500,000 house would only give you a $45,500 capital gain, not $400,000. The better terms are speculation and immigration. Good time to be a seller not buyer.

You don't really wanna use CPI as a reference for inflation in real estate.

That's the point I was making. He stated his house went up 400k "simply by inflation". Unless stated otherwise, I think most people would assume if you are talking about inflation, you are talking about the CPI.

That's what everyone told me 8 and a half years ago when the market was flat and I bought my first place. I'm sure glad I didn't listen then.

lol is always going to be a debate about when is a good time to buy or not.

IMO, vancouver's housing market is always going to be "average" unless we get a huge disaster or for some odd reason immigration stops and investment stops.

Im considering going through ING,, what are other mortgage options should I be looking for?

strata fees + taxes + mortage interest is probbaly over 1000 / month... so really its wasted either way, and you're not building equity for the first $1000 /m renting or buying.

but in the long term, you will be.

i mean, who likes to rent,
Ive been renting for the past 3 years, living in a basement, cant turn up my tv too loud, cant have any ppl over because of noise, fight for parking out front everyday, landlord is a bitch, listen to kids running around upstairs on Saturday mornings, have to walk down to the street just to have my mornign coffee and smoke, damn, cant even bone ur gf without telling her to be quiet .....heeelll nahhhhh, absolutely sick of it

if you already have to pay every month for your place to live, why not make it your own place. Like i said, i don't have the luxury to live with mom and wait for "a good time to buy", either i pay rent to my landlord or pay the mortgage, at the end of the day i still need a place to live. at least with property, its still some sort of investment.

with owning, i get freedom, no awkward run-ins with the landlord, comfort, my own garage and driveway to work on the car, play music and watch movies as loud as i want, no screaming kids upstairs waking me up 6am on saturday mornings....even if it cost me more to own (which isn't even that much more really), its worth every penny for me, quality of life is just so much better. As long as you can afford it, location is good and the price is right for you.

Might be a different scenario for investors who's planning to buy and flip it, or rent it out, start a grow op...etc.....
but everyone's situation is different. I need a place to live

^ ^ ^

That's a prime example why people still buy. There are many reasons why people get into real estate yet every thread about it always seems to get derailed by comparisons of the monetary cost of buying vs. renting. There is no one right answer.

There are plenty of people out there who buy for the emotion and mental security and freedom of owning a home and for many of those folks, you can't put a pricetag on that.

eddy89,
Are you looking at unfinished presale buildings, finished presale buildings or 1, 2, 3yrd old buildings?

Noone ever said don't buy if you can afford for YOURSELF.

If you're buying a place to live in then go ahead, buy what you can afford... just make sure to take into account all other ownership expenses and the possibility of the interest rate spiking. Also, don't be surprised if the value of your home drops by 10%+ over the next little while.

If you're buying purely as an investment that you may need to liquidate in the near term, then I would stay away. Vancouver is one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world currently. Year over year sales volumes are down, which is historically followed by price declines. Interest rates are at record lows but that won't last forever -- and if they jump substantially, there are going to be a lot of people in a lot of trouble. People are in record debt and RE prices have risen much faster than average salaries. There is a lot of offshore money coming in, but I'm not sure how long this will last. Maybe the insane prices continue to balloon, but IMO there is a high chance of a correction.

Sure, there are always the intangibles of ownership, and they're undeniable. But, to play devils' advocate in the above case of having a car and garage etc etc etc - this implies buying a detached house, which is pretty big money.

...and you can rent entire houses too :)

All this said, there's a reason why this thread is not being derailed about the discussions of "monetary costs of buying vs. renting".

Emphasis added. The OP implies that the purchase would be an investment, which should bring up discussion about the potential for monetary growth.

Bonka, I am trying to look for an apartment < 5 years old. Of course the newer the better for me as i wish to live in it first for around 3-5 years before renting it out or selling it (if the market is "good")