Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by Z3guy

^ then why the f**k don't you move there??? Love it or Hate it, many people choose to live here and deal with the stupid costs of living here....everyone must be stupid.

Moving, especially abroad, is not as easy as it sounds.

How do you plan to get an immigrant visa? (assuming staying for a very long-term basis... temporary work visa just isn't gonna cut it)

What's the job opportunity there? Is one willing to give up all the exp. and connection he/she established locally and start from 0 again?

How to deal with future F&F relationships?

The list goes on.

Would I love to live in PDX instead of YVR? Absolutely. But solving just the basic prerequisites is hard as hell.

I've moved many times since I was a kid. Asia to South America, SA to US, US to CA, West to East, and East to West. So I'm no stranger for full-scale relocation. So much so that I don't really have a sense of what is home exactly anymore. I feel like home pretty much everywhere.

If it's hard even for me, I can't imagine for others who have relatively less exp. than I do.

So, don't just shout why we complain so much. There are reasons why we are kinda "stuck" in here. So we complain in hope to make it better.

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by 68style

Yah good idea guys, just move there if you love it so much... because it's SO EASY to get a green card in the USA right?

Or move somewhere in Canada where you don't need one?

Then you'll complain about how it sucks there, no ocean or mountains, etc etc etc etc etc

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by Hehe

Moving, especially abroad, is not as easy as it sounds.

How do you plan to get an immigrant visa? (assuming staying for a very long-term basis... temporary work visa just isn't gonna cut it)

What's the job opportunity there? Is one willing to give up all the exp. and connection he/she established locally and start from 0 again?

How to deal with future F&F relationships?

The list goes on.

Would I love to live in PDX instead of YVR? Absolutely. But solving just the basic prerequisites is hard as hell.

I've moved many times since I was a kid. Asia to South America, SA to US, US to CA, West to East, and East to West. So I'm no stranger for full-scale relocation. So much so that I don't really have a sense of what is home exactly anymore. I feel like home pretty much everywhere.

If it's hard even for me, I can't imagine for others who have relatively less exp. than I do.

So, don't just shout why we complain so much. There are reasons why we are kinda "stuck" in here. So we complain in hope to make it better.

No one is ever stuck anywhere. We are lucky in life to be able to make choices. If you don't try, how will you know?

[CivicBlues]

When I was in my early 20s I used to love visiting Seattle and Portland for all the stuff it offered like cheap shopping, nightlife, sports teams and general big city amenities that Vancouver sort of lacked back then in the early 2000s. But the older I get the more and more I feel like I'm sort of stuck in the "Canadian" way of doing things and find it harder to see myself becoming a US resident.

There's also the fact that Vancouver benefits (or suffers) from the "big fish in a small pond syndrome". We're the 3rd biggest city in Canada, and we get all the prestige that goes along with that - including the incredible multicultural diversity, political power, national sports attention, and the size of our airport's international destination offerings.

Seattle and Portland are the 15th and 23rd largest metros in the US respectively, and whenever I visit even though the freeways are wider and the buildings taller, I sort of get a sense that it's a bit more "provincial". I mean, ffs there's tons of "Teriyaki" restaurants in Seattle still. I would wager in Portland Chinese food offerings consists mostly of PF Changs and Panda Express (I dunno correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't been back since 2010).

I guess it's ok if you're a white hipster, as your needs would be mostly satisfied. But as a wordly Asian-Canadian? I think only SF, LA, and NYC would be a step up for us culturally.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by mikemhg

Really? You think Portland is 4/10 and Vancouver is so much better? I definitely disagree with you, if anything going down to Portland reminds me how much we've been sold a complete lie up here in Vancouver.

Housing, taxes, affordability, I think Portland beats Vancouver in all of these factors. Given the cost of living in Vancouver, what exactly makes this city so much better than Portland? I'm not seeing it, and please don't say mountain and beaches, that shit is getting tired, Oregon has both.

Oregon has both, Portland doesn't.

Portland has its charm I can appreciate it. but it's kind of a dump to be honest. It's cleaner than most American cities I've been to but it's still pretty run down in some areas, and even just blocks over from established/developed areas there's boarded up homes and whole buildings.

The homeless problem there is wayyyy more rampant than in Vancouver. It's a fucking joke that Van is always brought up as this blight on the city in the DTES, the DTES is like 6 square blocks.. you can walk through the rest of the downtown core MAYBE seeing a beggar here and there but in Portland there's like roaming groups of them, tent cities everywhere and people sprawled out on the middle of the sidewalk in sleeping bags etc. parks along the river are pretty gross and littered with garbage and bums.

Housing? Sure your average run down place on the east side is still 550+ from what I saw at two different realtor outlets and the nice older homes on the west side around knob hill and Washington park are 800-1.8. No sales tax obviously helps but that's an afterthought in terms of a change of lifestyle in moving there.

Portland was not nearly as nice overall as I Expected and it's geographical location was completely not what I thought. A fairly ugly city overall outside of its nicer heritage buildings.

The points brought up above in terms of coffee and beer, I'll give them the slight advantage in coffee as the producers there seem more passionate and more into the process than they do here (although knowing some of the local producers id make an argument it's hard to be more passionate than some of them)

The beer situation though, I dunno..I'm giving BC/Van the nod overall on the beer. It's feels like Portland has kind of sagged in their top notch breweries and similar to van, become Saturated with half ass breweries pushing out whatever they can. I drank a lot of beer down there his past week and almost nothing stood out for me, and I was drinking recommendations from tasting room owners and bartenders the whole time.

Vancouver is the jewel of the Pacific Northwest. The best geographically located major core and the most beautiful by far. Edit* the Air is also seemingly wayyy cleaner in Van than it is in both cities in question.

Can't deal with the downsides? Then you can move to abbotsford and get that Portland feel for 650. It's a more attractive place to be for me, and the people who are paying these prices to live here.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

When I was in my early 20s I used to love visiting Seattle and Portland for all the stuff it offered like cheap shopping, nightlife, sports teams and general big city amenities that Vancouver sort of lacked back then in the early 2000s. But the older I get the more and more I feel like I'm sort of stuck in the "Canadian" way of doing things and find it harder to see myself becoming a US resident.

There's also the fact that Vancouver benefits (or suffers) from the "big fish in a small pond syndrome". We're the 3rd biggest city in Canada, and we get all the prestige that goes along with that - including the incredible multicultural diversity, political power, national sports attention, and the size of our airport's international destination offerings.

Seattle and Portland are the 15th and 23rd largest metros in the US respectively, and whenever I visit even though the freeways are wider and the buildings taller, I sort of get a sense that it's a bit more "provincial". I mean, ffs there's tons of "Teriyaki" restaurants in Seattle still. I would wager in Portland Chinese food offerings consists mostly of PF Changs and Panda Express (I dunno correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't been back since 2010).

I guess it's ok if you're a white hipster, as your needs would be mostly satisfied. But as a wordly Asian-Canadian? I think only SF, LA, and NYC would be a step up for us culturally.

I'm not sure of the state as a whole but Portland and the coastal areas of Astoria and Cannon beach were nearly 90% Caucasian, 8% African American, 2% Asian. Haven't seen thay few asians since I was in finland lol

[MarkyMark]

I wonder how many people that live here even get to enjoy Vancouver. If you live downtown perhaps but everyone out in the burbs spending 900k for a house in Surrey probably don't want to spend the bus fair to see Van more than a few times a year.

You get to see the mountains in the distance though, mocking you.

[68style]

Originally Posted by kr4l

Or move somewhere in Canada where you don't need one?

Then you'll complain about how it sucks there, no ocean or mountains, etc etc etc etc etc

Wow you know me so well, asshole! Are you always so pleasant in your every day life or you just wait to go online to talk shit to people?

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

I mean, ffs there's tons of "Teriyaki" restaurants in Seattle still. I would wager in Portland Chinese food offerings consists mostly of PF Changs and Panda Express (I dunno correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't been back since 2010).

I guess it's ok if you're a white hipster, as your needs would be mostly satisfied. But as a wordly Asian-Canadian? I think only SF, LA, and NYC would be a step up for us culturally.

bellevue has din tai fung

[GLOW]

hey man what's wrong with panda express

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by 68style

Wow you know me so well, asshole! Are you always so pleasant in your every day life or you just wait to go online to talk shit to people?

The first sentence was directed to you.

The second one was just for everyone complaining about not having the ocean or mountains, unless you're one of those people as well.

I'm actually a pretty nice guy. I may come off as an asshole because I cut straight to the point, no bullshit. Is what I'm saying not the truth?

[MarkyMark]

Originally Posted by kr4l

The first sentence was directed to you.

The second one was just for everyone complaining about not having the ocean or mountains, unless you're one of those people as well.

I'm actually a pretty nice guy. I may come off as an asshole because I cut straight to the point, no bullshit. Is what I'm saying not the truth?

When did you get into the market, before or after everything went crazy?

[ForbiddenX]

Our offer just got accepted for a unit in False Creek! A little bit more than what we wanted to spend originally but in terms of size and location it was perfect.

Spent about 2.5 months looking for a place but it's finally over

[Euro7r]

I'm planning to look for a place this year and I visited my home bank that I bank the most with to get a preapproval done, signed preapproval @ whatever interest rate for $ X amount.

I decided to go to my second bank to see what rate they could offer me, surprisingly much lower interest rate than my home bank, but I didn't do an official preapproval where I sign the document.

My question is, am I able to sign two preapprovals? This is assuming my home bank does not match the offer of my second bank.

[quasi]

I don't see why not you're not obligated to buy or use any lender.

[Sw0op]

Originally Posted by Euro7r

I'm planning to look for a place this year and I visited my home bank that I bank the most with to get a preapproval done, signed preapproval @ whatever interest rate for $ X amount.

I decided to go to my second bank to see what rate they could offer me, surprisingly much lower interest rate than my home bank, but I didn't do an official preapproval where I sign the document.

My question is, am I able to sign two preapprovals? This is assuming my home bank does not match the offer of my second bank.

you dont need to go with either of them..you dont even need to sign anything. you should just put your name in to the system so that when the time comes they will give you the best rate they had for the past 90 days. then if you want, use that lowest rate and shop it around.

[winson604]

Originally Posted by ForbiddenX

Our offer just got accepted for a unit in False Creek! A little bit more than what we wanted to spend originally but in terms of size and location it was perfect.

Spent about 2.5 months looking for a place but it's finally over

Congrats, I know the feeling as it took me 14 months of endless searching before I finally found something and looking back at all the damn it we should have moments it all worked out as we held our emotions in check and waited to make the right choice.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

bellevue has din tai fung

Yes, where the siu long baos are made by Mexicans and the food is served to you by caucasians.

[Liquid_o2]

GF and I just started talking to a mortgage broker. Our first time purchasing. Any "must ask" questions that we should be throwing at him?

I'm really hoping that the market gets some more inventory moving into the spring, it is depressing right now for anything 1+ den or 2 bedroom.

[Tapioca]

Originally Posted by Liquid_o2

GF and I just started talking to a mortgage broker. Our first time purchasing. Any "must ask" questions that we should be throwing at him?

I'm really hoping that the market gets some more inventory moving into the spring, it is depressing right now for anything 1+ den or 2 bedroom.

1. Ask about collateral vs conventional charge products. Collateral charges make it slightly more difficult to use another lender in the future. If you bundle a HELOC with your mortgage, the question becomes moot.

2. It's not all about the rate. Ask about prepayment options and any other perks, like the ability to skip a payment.

3. Ask about the quality of service from monoline lenders such as EQ Bank or MCap.

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

Yes, where the siu long baos are made by Mexicans and the food is served to you by caucasians.

white girls in a china dress?

[ImportPsycho]

What are you thoughts on Maple Ridge, to live?
We are interested in decent size 3b TH, in case my wife wants to have 2nd one, but there is nothing around Greater Vancouver in 500k range, unless like 30+ years old unit.
My company has 2nd office in Langley, which I can transfer to, so commuting shouldn't be an issue.

[Hondaracer]

Gotta weigh all the options in terms of size, age, location, commute, etc

For that price range I'd probably look for somthing older in a good development over a newer smaller unit

[Tapioca]

Originally Posted by ImportPsycho

What are you thoughts on Maple Ridge, to live?
We are interested in decent size 3b TH, in case my wife wants to have 2nd one, but there is nothing around Greater Vancouver in 500k range, unless like 30+ years old unit.
My company has 2nd office in Langley, which I can transfer to, so commuting shouldn't be an issue.

There are small detached lots in the Port Hammond area that might be in your price range. Silver Valley is where all of the well off people are so, perhaps you might want to see if there are any townhouses up there.

Otherwise, if you just want a townhouse, you could probably get a modern townhouse in Pitt Meadows by the river for that price. Or why not Walnut Grove so you don't have to pay the Golden Ears toll?

[jackmeister]

Originally Posted by Euro7r

I'm planning to look for a place this year and I visited my home bank that I bank the most with to get a preapproval done, signed preapproval @ whatever interest rate for $ X amount.

I decided to go to my second bank to see what rate they could offer me, surprisingly much lower interest rate than my home bank, but I didn't do an official preapproval where I sign the document.

My question is, am I able to sign two preapprovals? This is assuming my home bank does not match the offer of my second bank.

Unless it's on paper, your mortgage person at the bank does not guarantee that you get the loan for sure, as it's approved by another department at head office