The woods in South Surrey Whiterock sold out last summer with a similar design (commercial space) as well. Back then I thought 469,000 was too much for me to spend. Silly. It was a tandem garage, but extra wide. Natural gas on the rooftop patio.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

One thing I have noticed while driving all around Metro Van in the last few weeks is there is a lot more "forsale" signs with realtor information hanging in front of houses for longer periods. Before all you would see is "sold" signs with realtor information.

The punch bowl has definitely been stirred. :Popcorn

Was at the Urban Development Institute conference this afternoon and they were primarily talking about the whole 15% foreign buyer tax that was implemented. The presenter brought up a huge eye opening stat in that sales for homes in Richmond from August 2015 compared to this year (Aug 2016) were down 66%. Sales across all municipalities are down 17% or something like that. Drew a huge "wow" from the crowd.

They also touched on the fact that other cities such as Seattle and Toronto will likely feel the brunt of the Chinese Nationalists spending spree now that Vancouver has implemented the tax. They also mentioned that Toronto is currently also looking into implementing something similar to Vancouver.

^ sales are down 17%. That's actually a terrible figure if you're waiting for a crash to happen no? If sales were down say 90%, OK maybe shits going down. Also the figure is only for the month of August

End the end, figures and stats mean nothing. If you want a house and no one will sell there's for less than 2mil, you're sol

August tends to slow down anyway as people with kids tend to move early summer and try to settle into new homes before school starts. June 2016 vs June 2017 will be interesting to see even though I do believe the fever has cooled a bit.

Hope so anyway for a bunch of people I know who are considering relocating due to increased housing prices.. sucks to see old friends leave. One recently even as far away as Prince George :heckno:

This is just the beginning, if people feel a sense of uncertainty they will stop and assess.

A $3M home now will cost a foreigner an extra $450,000. What can you buy with that $450k? A Ferrari and boat? A couple of kid's education at the best schools in Vancouver?

It's still a lot of money. Rich people didn't get rich by spending frivolously, they got rich by being smart . They are going to find the next place that is Vancouver "like" and that right now is Seattle.

Super OT, but we are looking to rend a condo in Lower Lonsdale, so far there seems to be a lot more options than the last time I was looking around May - Thank god.

If anyone sees anything magical feel free to PM me lol Max is 3500$/month, move in date no later than 1-Nov-16.

^ as said before, if you can afford 3mil, you're on another level of money. They could also buy the house, pay 15%, buy a Ferrari, a yacht, and send all there kids to college.

- For the people who have been here for years and didn't want to sell during this crazy boom, what makes you think they're going to start selling now that they would be offered less than what they turned down before

- Does everyone believe that all the houses were bought with foreign money? didn't the papers and govt say it was only like 10% or something??

- Since foreigners already bought up the place, what makes you think they all want to sell for less than what they bought it for? They didn't get rich by buying high and selling low..

- if a huge correction occurs, what makes you think a foreigner wont pay the 15% to get in before you do? if a house was 1mil, ok they might not pay an extra 150k for taxes but if that house dropped to 500k, I can bet you that they are willing to pay an extra 75k on it

- if the time comes and the housing market drops like it did in the US, will you still have a job to afford a house?

I think there are more people than you think who:
- work in recession-resistant industries
- who live at home,
- and have 6-figure down payments waiting.

People have admitted as much a few pages back. They could probably afford to take on a 300-400K mortgage at 5-6%. Lots of people just don't want to pay 1+ million for a house. They want to pay 500-600K.

If housing prices ever dropped to 500-600k, I'll be right there waiting. Same with all the foreigners and rich locals. Hopes and dreams I guess.

I want a Ferrari too. Just don't want to pay to play.

People here are delusional to think that someone will willingly pay 450k on a 3 mil home for the 'privilege' of living in Vancouver.

You don't get 3mil to plop down on a house by doing stupid shit like that.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psww8ayp20.jpg

Look at where we live.

If there's a premium to be paid to live here, there will be a portion of the population who are willing to pay it to be here.

Drive down willingdon, boundary, etc. on a clear evening and look at the sunset.

Mad ppl underestimating the allure of Van.

Random pics from my camera roll over the last two years:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...ps0n7w8pew.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...pssgmjw6ju.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psso9brirm.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psijyvulql.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...pslywy9byb.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...ps1bzhyb5u.jpg


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...pslhowcryy.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psge9tuwni.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psidqtnsno.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psrlui0aoj.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psei9at1tm.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...ps53wtky46.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...ps98qsp5za.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psr4ysr9cj.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psr6rbww8f.jpg

Ever think values are just keeping up to the world average?

You saw Rio in the Olympics? It's fucking gorgeous.

Vancouver On the world scale is Rio in a first world country with unlimited resources.

In b4 it's dat weed/drunk talk

:rukidding: alluring sunsets are now part of the RE equation
nevermind that sunsets can be nice in any corner of this planet

6 months from now just before elections, it'll be interesting to see how the market is doing compared to spring 2016. I'll try to remember coming back to these pages made in the summer to see who turned out to be right and who's wrong...should be interesting. Going back to the first few pages of this thread is always fun EleGiggle

I bought a presale 2 months ago at $1100 per sqft in Olympic village. Screenshot this and I'll let you know how I did.

Some of the richest people I know are also some of the cheapest fucking people I've ever encountered.

Lol, yup my boss owns construction companies, construction supply houses, development companies, RV/Car dealerships and he's as cheap as they come. He doesn't flaunt his money at all, just another guy.

A person i knew own a mechanical company gross average 30-40 million a year, and owns a huge farm. Yet he bought his wife an used x5 diesel andl for good fuel economy he told me.

Bill Gates drove a Ford Focus well after making billions.

Plenty of people get rich. People that spend like Bill stay rich.

someone forward that to the CRA

I get what you're saying, and for the rich people that want to live here it may make sense to just eat the tax and do so. For the people who are thinking about the investment side of things, an extra 15% on top of what everyone else pays isn't really a good investment. You can't look at it and be like "it's Vancouver my house will be worth more than 15% in a couple of weeks" just because of how things have gone over the last couple years. If things are slowing down it could take years to make up that 15% now.

Seattle has sunsets too, and if you're looking at a 2 million dollar property you might look at that you can buy there, compared to the hundred year old house you'll get here and think long and hard about it.

I could be wrong but who knows, no one likes paying extra taxes especially when they start going into the hundreds of thousands.

Now we're talking about sunsets. Because the sun doesn't set in any other part of the world, apparently.

:fulloffuck:

And once again (for the millionth time), people are associating the price to live here as allurement & love rather than that of real estate investment / speculation.

If there was a premium to be paid based on location alone (such as Vancouver) for the purposes of buying a single property to raise your family in, that's fine but it hasn't been the case the since Expo 86. The greed from foreign investors spilled over to local investors who want to get on the gravy train with the help of cheap loans.

Well it doesn't really matter anymore as Toronto is on the radar now as well as Seattle. These rich parasites actually don't give a fuck about the city itself. They only see it as financial worth. Why would they take a hit on their investment when they can just keep moving it, staying ten steps ahead of their own government and the Canadian government?

It's not just about sunsets..a lot of other places in question here like Seattle and TO are fucking dumps.

Toronto is a joke imo in terms of the geographical location and surrounding areas. My two buddies who are developers in the lower mainland just spent a week visiting family in TO and London, they both came back and lol'ed at people actually comparing Van to TO.

I haven't been to TO in 5-6 years but even then I remember it being this ugly sprawling city with no real core or draw for me.

Two things people so vastlyyyyyy take for granted living in Vancouver:

The Mountains
The Ocean

Of course if you just live inside your condo and play video games all day who cares where you live.

Seattle also is a fucking dump compared to Van, and as far as I've seen/been told. The nicer areas are no where near the city's core. So your accessibility is extremely limited.

And as far as a "homeless problem" goes, seattle is wayyyyy worse than Van. I've honestly felt safer walking the streets of St.petersburg at night not knowing the language than walking bar to bar in seattles "core"

Having lived in Ottawa, Toronto and a couple places in the prairies. Toronto certainly will have a draw for anyone not into the outdoors. It puts Vancouver to shame if you want a city lifestyle. But as you said it, the mountains are key (Great Lakes are pretty ocean like id say). But the west coast moderate climate is the real draw.