Real estate investment
 

Just wondering if is a good time now? I've been looking for a place in richmond for awhile now roughly 3 months. I have narrow down to just townhouses, new ones or within 2 yrs old. For example, 1 yr old townhouse 1400 sq.ft townhouse with 3 bedrooms, twin garage, for $610,000 in Richmond around the William areas is that reasonable?

Is this a property you're going to live in? Or to rent?

I am open for either. Because I am currently living with my parents. I guess all depends on the market

The price may be reasonable today - yet how long do you plan to live there? I hope at least 10 years. Real estate is not a sure bet right now, with sales falling and inventory rising.

Also, townhouses don't retain their value as well as single family dwellings.

I know it's a sin to suggest it, but you could buy a whole, brand new house in maple ridge for that price, rent out the first floor, use the funds from that to pay your morgage. The property values in these areas are increasing, and the valley is the most rapidly growing area in Canada.

It's something you may want to consider if you're willing to leave Richmond and looking for an investment (though you could do something similiar with an older property in Richmond). There's some other areas in a similiar growth pattern in the city but others are still declining.

Also as a rental property 610K for a town house is too much (also many townhouse stratas do not allow for rental units - examine your strata rules and fees CLOSELY if you buy a condo/town house). At that rate, even if you charge 2300/month you're not going to pay off the investment for like 22 years (before factoring in interest, strata fees and property taxes, that's just principle).

This is not true. Almost everywhere outside of Richmond and Vancouver West are showing price declines, these 2 markets prop up the average price. There are parts of Surrey down 10%.

Maple Ridge isn't all that... let's say "worldly". The culture shock would be tough for the OP whom I assume is Asian since he's looking at Richmond. Besides, unless you work in Maple Ridge, it's just far from everything. An inner suburb like Burnaby or Coquitlam is probably a better bet. Gas prices will continue to rise and I would think that any gains to be made by purchasing a cheaper house will be lost in commuting time and costs. There's no free lunch.

Richmond is where its at.

I image richmound prices are droping fast now after the japan quake. only a matter of time before richmound is sunk too :)

^
Not sure about a major decline, but it certainly puts a damper on things and makes people think twice before pulling the trigger. For me, I'd rather live in a place where I don't have to worry about a tidal wave coming down the block 3 in the morning.

wtf... i doubt the japan issue will have any effect at all on Richmond prices.

OP, you gotta post up a bit more on what you're looking for. How many people are planning to live, cars you have etc. Property mgmt fees + sewage / garabge fees + property tax will be a HUGE consideration on hwo much you can afford. Getting a mortgage is not based on prime no more, it's based on prime + 5 yrs rate and then they'll scale it down to 3 years once you approve.

Richmond is a great area because of great skytrain and the ease of purchasing stuff. Richmond center, save on, safeway, superstore, yaohan are all located close to each other. It's one of the few place I think where I would live just for that. Also, restaurant of chinese food + bbt is also all located in the central area.

i vote for richmond. pricing is high, but you get what you pay for. Prices are very very high for house lots (due to FOBs coming in) but townhouses aren't that affected.

Thanks for all your inputs !
I have one car, and I will live by myself if not I'd consider a roomate or two. Main reason for only considering Richmond because I work in Richmond. My parent's place is in Surrey, so I'd have to drive at least 30+ mins to work everyday, and the traffic is getting worse each day. Maple Ridge is too far IMO.
I can't find any houses that are under 600K and still in reasonable condition in Richmond. Therefore, I put my focus on townhouses since apartments are just not practical for me.
I think I can afford the property tx, fees and such, only thing I am truly worry about is the fluctuation in prices. Some places are just way overprice, but they sell like crazy too. I am just really confuse what a reasonable offer would be.
Thanks again !

Totally, there are other areas where the same is true. Ridge is just chalk full of new property that's selling lower.

But there are other pockets in Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam where the prices are down a lot too. Richmond just seems to be held too high right now, IMHO. But, if you're looking for a place you plan to occupy for yourself for at least 5-10 years it might be worth it. Have you looked at a house with a suite though? That might help off set some of your expenses?

Also do you know a lot of co workers who live in the area you're looking in? You could ask them how their property values have held up while they've been there.

$600K and living by yourself, damn you must be making some good money or have lots saved. The mortgage + taxes + fees on that would be > $3K, so with the 44% TDS completely maxed you'd be making $6.5K/mn after tax, or $9K/mn or $110K.

Damn, I almost make that, yet cannot imagine paying $600K by myself.

Home insurance will take care of that. Oh wait, what if there is no land left to rebuild the home on? Hmm

I find it really hard to time the market.. Rmd (until the quake liquefies the ground anyway), Vancouver and Burnaby will always be relatively stable to any future correction, I think the outskirts would be hit hardest if there is a bubble burst. Can't imagine demand ever going away for the city core. Plus what is the vacancy rate like in the Ridge? If it's an investment piece, better make sure you find out what tenants are willing to pay and how easy it is to find them (and what kind of tenants are typically there too)

Nobody will insure against that. Canada doesn't have floor insurance.

Insurance companies are always willing to share the risk with someone. Even with life insurance they know the person is going to die eventually. They'll insure someone who will for sure die but they won't insure floods in Richmond.

Something to think about.

A Townhouse for 610k is very expensive. You can get yourself a decent 2-3br townhouse in Burnaby for 400-500k. More stable home value also in my opinion. The only reason Richmond had that little price boom was due to overseas investors, most of them tend to move out of Richmond within a year or two.

If I were you and had 600k to spend, I would try to buy some properties in Surrey. Surrey is a booming city and has a lot of potential.

You have to remember, banks are now approving you a 5 YR rate (to ensure you can pay for rates IF they jacked it up 3 yrs from now) and THEN approving the mortgage at 3 yr's rate.

say you're paying 1300 a month, but in 5 yrs, you're paying 1600... that's a HUGe whopping 3600 MORE a year. you can rough it out for the first year, but he 2nd / 3 rd afterwards, yo'll be dipping DEEP into your savings.