Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[CivicBlues]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

You people are crazy. Walkability is last on my list. Why walk anywhere. That’s for peasants. I drive anywhere in Richmond it’s 10-15 minutes

Bigger lot, not talking to idiots, and peace and quiet.. now that’s luxury. Getting crammed next to other peasants is communism.

Maybe because most of us don't wanna be your err....girth?

[EvoFire]

Walkability is great, and I agree with supa that Burnaby is terrible for walkability. The new building that went up on Willingdon, they just pulled all the fencing. There's a huge sidewalk but ZERO trees, just all concrete. That would really only be usable for like 4 months of year. Dumb.

If one is thinking walkability and convenience, Brentwood isn't it either. It's a terrible design. Parts of DT core is actually quite walkable. Most places can be reached while under shelter, lots of criss crossing underground. Only problem is you need to know how to access it as there's zero signage.

Wife laments the demographic around here in Fraserview. It's all old people, or older couples that own around here. We are one of the youngest families in the area at 38. The alternative is a lot of younger renters but no kids. Most of the over capacity at the schools are from down in the River District area.

[badgerx3]

To add to Burnaby’s ongoing walkability issues, particularly in the Brentwood area, is the general lack of “things.” The mall is large, but there’s not much to do besides eating at restaurants that all feel similar, just slightly different.

There’s virtually no nightlife or meaningful green space. The most notable public spot is the plaza at The Amazing Brentwood (TAB), which itself feels underwhelming.

I understand the area is still developing, but the fact that it’s been like this for nearly a decade leaves you wanting more. Hopefully, the new community centre being built across from the SkyTrain platform on the south side will help foster a stronger sense of community and identity, something the area currently lacks.

I used to live in one of the towers there, so I am speaking from personal experience. That being said, I enjoyed my time in the area. I would love to move into the Brentwood Park area in one of those detached homes (just not that $7mil abomination house lol).

[supafamous]

if you've got kids I think walkability is so valuable b/c it also implies density which means your kids friends all live nearby which means they can come over easily (especially when they are under 12). When I was a teen my bestie lived 3 townhouse complexes over and I was there every day playing Nintendo - can't really do that when every house is a big lot.

My 10 min walk to school is always a chance to chat with my kid about something - stuff that wouldn't happen if I drove them to school. Same goes for walking to the store or the park. Do it enough and she'll build some healthy habits long term (unlike me).

[Badhobz]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

Maybe because most of us don't wanna be your err....girth?

Fuck you. You want my XXL life you peasant.

[JDMDreams]

You rich folks talking about kids, I don't even have enough parking for all my cars let alone raising kids.

And I've realized I'll never own a detached here unless I have to live with parents or move further out somewhere like the island, Abby or Calgary. Or I can fuck off and live like a king in Asia, like Japan, Thailand or Vietnam. And buy even more cars.

[CivicBlues]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

Fuck you. You want my XXL life you peasant.

maybe, but maybe not your pant size

[RabidRat]

Originally Posted by westopher

Honestly living in this townhouse complex I’m in has been awesome. There’s like 15 kids close to my daughter’s age that meet up summer nights and play. The parents I get along with too so we can shoot the shit for an hour while the kids tire out and it’s like 6-7:30 most nights so it’s not like the noise is interfering with anyone unless they are really cunty and don’t understand how living in a city works. I’d love a house at some point but the social aspect of having good neighbours in close quarters is beneficial for my circumstances. Having a bunch of property to maintain isn’t in the cards for us even if we could afford it based on time constraints.
Also 5 minute walk to the elementary school she will go to in a year, 15 minute walk to daycare, 5 minute walk to the grocery store. The idea of having to drive to all that shit under any circumstance is such a waste.

My wife and I often talk about moving out of this detached house we bought last year, and into a townhouse for yeah basically every reason you described.

1) The social aspect: the lack of density and common space drastically cuts down on the number of other families we come across, and how often we come across them. It'd be nice for both us and our kids to regularly have other people around (our existing friends all live 20+ minute drive north, into the burbs).

2) The time sink: it takes me hours a week that I don't have, doing the yard work and maintenance outside & in the property, let alone dealing with any random problems that need fixing. Oh the sump pump stopped working for some reason? Well shit, better get after that right the f now, or the basement's going to flood (it was the wiring. fk the people who built this house.). Better even learn basic plumbing to install a redundant backup, because I can't trust the 1st one (good thing: the original subsequently failed again).

It all feels like a complete waste of time: there's nothing gained from it, simply relief that the latest problem / chore is finally dealt with.

I don't care about the extra space. We always take (drive, actually!!) the kids to the park instead anyway, for access to the playground and other people to be around.

3) The walkability factor: the local restaurants and grocery stores are not only a drive way, it's pay parking. Don't like it? Sure, drive even further. Hope you like wading in Toronto traffic though.

Everyone's preference is different of course, but for us, it's not even about the money. It's about what we value, what kind of a lived experience we want for ourselves.

[Tapioca]

If you've got an end unit townhouse that's about 2000-2500 square feet with a double garage, driveway, and a decent-sized amount of green space in the back, it could work long-term.

We lived in a narrow townhouse for a few years and it was pretty good for a couple of years. Then the pandemic hit and both my wife and I were working at home with young kids and no space. Our neighbours were loud and friendly, which was fine in pre-pandemic times when we were commuting more regularly, but then their behaviour became grating over time. Maybe my wife and I got older and more grouchy, I don't know.

Plus, if you live in a newer townhouse development, it's relatively trouble-free in the first decade or so. Then as the building ages, you pay more in fees and you're never really in control of maintenance. If you want to install central A/C, in most cases you can't do that because there's insufficient space to install the unit in a townhouse complex. Plus, stratas are reluctant to pierce the building envelope in retrofit situations. We have a 30-year old house that we've spent tens of thousands in plus hundreds of hours in sweat equity. There's something to be said in terms of being in complete control of how you maintain and renovate your home.

I'll give you a simple example:
- When it rained heavily when we lived in our townhouse, one of the roof gutters outside of our front door was clogged. So, water entered into the doorway and entered inside. When I informed our property management company of this, I had to wait several weeks for the maintenance contractor to come to clean the gutters.
- This week, one of our gutters was clogged on the side of the house. I got my ladder out and dealt with it right away to prevent further water egress.

[mikemhg]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Walkability is great, and I agree with supa that Burnaby is terrible for walkability. The new building that went up on Willingdon, they just pulled all the fencing. There's a huge sidewalk but ZERO trees, just all concrete. That would really only be usable for like 4 months of year. Dumb.

If one is thinking walkability and convenience, Brentwood isn't it either. It's a terrible design. Parts of DT core is actually quite walkable. Most places can be reached while under shelter, lots of criss crossing underground. Only problem is you need to know how to access it as there's zero signage.

Wife laments the demographic around here in Fraserview. It's all old people, or older couples that own around here. We are one of the youngest families in the area at 38. The alternative is a lot of younger renters but no kids. Most of the over capacity at the schools are from down in the River District area.

Brentwood utterly sucks for walkability.

Walking along a 6-lane road like Lougheed isn't exactly nice, going north up Beta or Delta you have 40 degree incline hills, going south takes you to pretty much nothing.

Capitol Hill and Burnaby Heights areas are far better in terms of walkability, not even a question.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

If you've got an end unit townhouse that's about 2000-2500 square feet with a double garage, driveway, and a decent-sized amount of green space in the back, it could work long-term.

We lived in a narrow townhouse for a few years and it was pretty good for a couple of years. Then the pandemic hit and both my wife and I were working at home with young kids and no space. Our neighbours were loud and friendly, which was fine in pre-pandemic times when we were commuting more regularly, but then their behaviour became grating over time. Maybe my wife and I got older and more grouchy, I don't know.

Plus, if you live in a newer townhouse development, it's relatively trouble-free in the first decade or so. Then as the building ages, you pay more in fees and you're never really in control of maintenance. If you want to install central A/C, in most cases you can't do that because there's insufficient space to install the unit in a townhouse complex. Plus, stratas are reluctant to pierce the building envelope in retrofit situations. We have a 30-year old house that we've spent tens of thousands in plus hundreds of hours in sweat equity. There's something to be said in terms of being in complete control of how you maintain and renovate your home.

When we lived in our condo I was ready to punch somebody in the head sitting in on the AGM

How fucking stupid people can be in regards to strata, that one meeting made me never want to have to own somthing within a strata ever again.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by RabidRat

My wife and I often talk about moving out of this detached house we bought last year, and into a townhouse for yeah basically every reason you described.

1) The social aspect: the lack of density and common space drastically cuts down on the number of other families we come across, and how often we come across them. It'd be nice for both us and our kids to regularly have other people around (our existing friends all live 20+ minute drive north, into the burbs).

2) The time sink: it takes me hours a week that I don't have, doing the yard work and maintenance outside & in the property, let alone dealing with any random problems that need fixing. Oh the sump pump stopped working for some reason? Well shit, better get after that right the f now, or the basement's going to flood (it was the wiring. fk the people who built this house.). Better even learn basic plumbing to install a redundant backup, because I can't trust the 1st one (good thing: the original subsequently failed again).

It all feels like a complete waste of time: there's nothing gained from it, simply relief that the latest problem / chore is finally dealt with.

I don't care about the extra space. We always take (drive, actually!!) the kids to the park instead anyway, for access to the playground and other people to be around.

3) The walkability factor: the local restaurants and grocery stores are not only a drive way, it's pay parking. Don't like it? Sure, drive even further. Hope you like wading in Toronto traffic though.

Everyone's preference is different of course, but for us, it's not even about the money. It's about what we value, what kind of a lived experience we want for ourselves.

Everything is great with a townhouse, until it's not. I had a bunch of reasons to why I insisted on buying a house.

1. Space - it was covid, we both went from in office to WFH full time. We ran out of space and I was working on the dinner table.
2. Strata fee - When we bought it was $230/m, it was $400 when we sold 5 years later. It was going to keep going up
3. Strata - the strata had money, but didn't like spending it. Our section of the townhouse had a leak in the roof 2 years in a row. On the second year the leak became something like a faucet coming through our living room chandelier.
4. Strata council - It only takes one guy. Power tripping idiot told me I could not ride my bike from the bike locker to the gate in the parking garage and I was going too fast and he was going to give me a fine. This was while I was just rolling along without pedaling and fumbling with the garage remote to get out.
5. Neighbours (this one is gonna be long) - My neighbours were great, until they weren't. When I moved in it was a family of 5 (married couple, one child, two grandparents) on one side and they were great. The other side was a single old lady which I helped her with her little grocery cart everytime I saw her, which was great. The old lady passed away and her family sold the place, in moved what I would call a white trash family who played movies loud into the night, smoked weed in their house. They were courteous but had zero common sense. The family of 5 also sold and in moved a Japanese family who surprise had the exact same problems, loud music and weed. But at least they kept it to sane hours and not 2am.

With a SFH, as much as hobz complains about being close to the neighbours, even in East Van where it's much tighter, there's a degree of separation.

[yray]

nothings perfect

seniors couple houses down have their house filming again and closed the fucking street.

whole fucking street has to clear out just so the seniors can profit...

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by supafamous

https://www.zealty.ca/mls-R3021244/4...-Vancouver-BC/

2700sf new build for $4.4m right by Nat Bailey stadium. It's certainly nice looking but $4.4m!!!!??

Agree it's nice looking, but not $4.4m nice! And with a garage/driveway like that, you'll be facing flooding issues once it rains heavily.

They're really selling the appeal of the Riley Park area...

[Harvey Specter]

Originally Posted by Gumby

Agree it's nice looking, but not $4.4m nice! And with a garage/driveway like that, you'll be facing flooding issues once it rains heavily.

They're really selling the appeal of the Riley Park area...

This is one of the hottest neighbourhoods in Vancouver. It’s actually insane how much people are paying for homes in and around this area. It’s gone through major gentrification over the past few years, lots of hipsters, young professionals, and people with inheritances who don’t care how much they’re spending.

[Hakkaboy]

yeah....but $4.4m is still 4.4m.

Even if you are putting 50% as down, your mortgage payments, stretched out with a 30 year mortgage...is still over $10K/month?

Still seems like a lot, no?

[westopher]

If these people are inheriting houses they are putting 3 million down and buying a Porsche. And still gonna live cheque to cheque afterwards. Gotta keep up appearances.

[Harvey Specter]

Political correctness aside, most buyers of these houses are white, the builders are white and come from the West Side. The inheritances they’re receiving aren’t just a couple of million, they’re likely close to the listing price of the house, so mortgage isn’t a concern.

In fact, one of the biggest draws of this area is that it’s mostly white, while the surrounding neighbourhoods are much more diverse.

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by Harvey Specter

Political correctness aside, most buyers of these houses are white, the builders are white and come from the West Side. The inheritances they’re receiving aren’t just a couple of million, they’re likely close to the listing price of the house, so mortgage isn’t a concern.

In fact, one of the biggest draws of this area is that it’s mostly white, while the surrounding neighbourhoods are much more diverse.

True - my in-laws live in that area and I see many young, white families living there.

The buyer of that house won't be Chinese because the front entrance opens right into the powder room door!

[whitev70r]

There is so much generational wealth in that neighbourhood ... 80% senior citizens in Kerrisdale. Just a matter of time ... and wait. You might have won the lottery if your parent, aunt/uncle (without kids), or grandparents own a house in that area. Even if it is a one floor bungalow.

If you're a young family with kids living in that hood ... you've received an inheritance and/or born with the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth.

[RabidRat]

Originally Posted by Gumby

The buyer of that house won't be Chinese because the front entrance opens right into the powder room door!

Oh shit. Maybe they're deliberately designing these houses this way, to screen out the colored ppl!!



I love it. Now I really want to move into this neighborhood just to ruin the look. Do 15 of you want to be my room mates so we can collectively afford it?

[Mikoyan]

Originally Posted by Gumby

True - my in-laws live in that area and I see many young, white families living there.

The buyer of that house won't be Chinese because the front entrance opens right into the powder room door!

My brother's in that area, east of Fraser, and he says it's all west side kids growing up and buying in that area. You can see it in the demographics for sure. At the VSB district track meet, Victoria/Fraserview schools were primarily asian. McBride: 3/4 tall rangy looking white blonde LD track runners.

[tiger_handheld]

long time lurker, first time poster - are we allowed to talk rentals here? have the prices dipped or what?

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by tiger_handheld

long time lurker, first time poster - are we allowed to talk rentals here? have the prices dipped or what?

From what I can see, prices have dropped in the East Van area because:

1) fewer international students
2) more Air BnB regulations/fees, so owners are foregoing the short term rentals

As a result, more supply for longer-term tenants to choose from.

[Harvey Specter]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

There is so much generational wealth in that neighbourhood ... 80% senior citizens in Kerrisdale. Just a matter of time ... and wait. You might have won the lottery if your parent, aunt/uncle (without kids), or grandparents own a house in that area. Even if it is a one floor bungalow.

If you're a young family with kids living in that hood ... you've received an inheritance and/or born with the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth.

You're going to see a lot of wealth transfer in the next few years, as many of these homeowners are now in their 80s. The thing is, there are so many homes in Vancouver where people bought 30+ years ago and are mortgage free it's insane.

I have a friend whose parents lived in Killarney, and after his mother passed away, he inherited the house. He ended up selling it for $2.7 million, bought another old house in Fraserview, sold his townhouse, and now he's building his dream home mortgage free. And he's planning to buy a ZR1, lol.