Because white guys like me don't have 50k-100k down for a nice downtown condo but we can afford to rent one for 2k a month


:fullofwin:

A lot of the condos aren't finished building yet though. So there is no way of telling if they are being bought with cash or will have a mortgage on them.

I do know that there are people from Asia who are buying apartments to rent out later, or simply to flip; and because they buy in bulk, developers are willing to give them big discounts, thus giving them an advantage in pricing. Many who buy properties at pre-sales are paying the market price, while those buyers are getting big discounts(around from 5% to 10%) from the developers.

So even if the market does start to crash, those buyers already have a cushion to fall back on. Besides, a 10% to 20% loss in their investment is probably not a big deal, as they have other sources of income to cover that loss. If you look at Vancouver's housing prices over the past 30 years, it doesn't matter what happens in the short run, the housing prices about double every ten years.

Therefore, if you can hold onto a property for more than ten years, you are pretty safe. But I am not saying this is the case for all real estate properties. So location is still key when deciding which properties to purchase.

But looking at the number of condos that are being built in Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, Coquitlam, and even Surrey, I would stay put and wait until next year to make a decision in purchasing. Mainly because there are too many unknown factors in the market right now, like will all those units be filled up?

Downtown is like West side, as there is not much land left to build on, so I believe prices there should hold up, or not fluctuate as much.

Richmond and Burnaby are quite similar, and for people thinking about buying there, I'd recommend waiting to see what happens to all the empty units once they are completed. I don't know if people would start moving there if the supply of new condos increases.

I was at Surrey City Center the other day looking at a development. Price per square foot there is close to $500.... you can find properties in downtown for around $600-$700! So surrey I would definitely stay away from for the time being.

Coquitlam we can already see some developers giving out big discounts to to buyers so that they can start getting rid of inventory. So, pretty much the same story as Surrey City Center.

Single detached homes.. I'm not even looking at them since they are so expensive. But I doubt Vancouver West side will fall much. There are so many buyers waiting to pick up the houses even if they fall even 10%, I don't think prices there would change much at all. Think of it this way, the price for a detached home on the West Side here equals an apartment of similar size in China. Here, you own the land once you buy. While there, you own it for 70 years.

Just my thoughts from going around the past couple of months looking at properties.

Look at price appreciation in Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton - all dumps, all have gone crazy just like Vancouver.

Each will start to soften at different types (already happening), but bc this is a Canada wide thing, I can tell you with certainty that it is easy money feeling this stupidity.

Vancouver has always been a bit more expensive than other regions for obvious reasons (I would not live anywhere but Vancouver in Canada, as I hate the cold and demand to live on the coast), but everything has gone up in similar proportions.

Sask is booming right now, they can't get enough tradesmen there and pay out the nose for them. My dad does the same job I do but he's located there, comparing apples to apples there bidding and paying 30-40% higher on labour then I am here. 80% of my dads work force is flown in from BC and Alberta, almost all work in the city or not is treated like out of town work because of that. They have to pay travel, lodging and per diem for most employees. I think he said last time he checked they have over 15 apartments and houses rented around the Province but he's not even sure on the exact amount.

Great watch

The Condo Game - Doc Zone

Very interesting to watch. Thanks for sharing.

related to the story above

Throw-away buildings: Toronto's glass condos - Toronto - CBC News

http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/8...usted-heating/

just something to think about for those looking to buy condos.

Just read an article about least affordable cities in the world:

Vancouver is second least affordable city out of 350(around there) cities.

Research and data collected and rated by:

http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf

Interestingly, Canada on the whole is actually "affordable", but Vancouver by itself is "severely unaffordable".

Hong Kong is MOST unaffordable at 13.5 times median annual income (before taxes)

Vancouver is second most unaffordable at 9.5.

Now, this rating is based on Median income BEFORE taxes.

Factor in income tax.... and Vancouver and Hong Kong have similar severe unaffordable ratings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates
Hong Kong has an income tax of 0% to 15% max.

Canada/BC/Vancouver is 0% to 54.5% (or thereabouts).

Sigh...

a new reason to call this place hongcouver

Yet people are still buying and find it acceptable to be house poor for life.

it's just bad logic for a lot of people.

There are people that think land will never depreciate. There are too many people that are caught up in the culture of owning a house in Vancouver because it's a status thing. ie. the house hornyness.

They think renting is "throwing money down the drain", yet don't realize that paying interest to the banks is the same thing. A lot of people aren't educated on opportunity costs.

it's like the many people that live right next to the Port mann bridge, and would rather drive further away to take the Pattullo and take an extra 15 minutes of commute time because they dont want to pay the toll. They get the bill and say "wow, i spent $50 last month on the toll", but dont realize that if they drive to the other bridge, they are paying in terms of longer time, gas, car depreciation and mileage. etc.

people just have poor logic sometimes. same principles apply with housing right now.

You can't have a family and live in a condo in Vancouver.


A house is 1+ mil


What do you do? Surrey is NOT an option.

why? because the housing in Vancouver is still much much more affordable (cheap) compared to major cities in china. here is freehold which is even better

Why is Surrey not an option? Why does it have to be ONLY a house? this is very entitled thinking. Buy a town home then and you'll only pay less than half a million. Find a 3 BR to raise a family (2 BR are even cheaper).
There are alternatives and to give you an idea of pricing, Richmond will set you back ~515k for a 3 BR that is 10-15 years old while Burnaby is around the same or slightly lower in price depending on the area. Not to mention New West, Surrey, and Langley is even more competitively priced and are also new or recently built.

If you work in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, or the Tri-City, Surrey and anything further east are not / may not be a good option. Given the traffic costs (both in terms of $$ and time), you might as well look for something on the other side of the Fraser River to begin with.

You will generally meet more complex and sophisticated people living in Point Grey / Kits / Shaugnessy than in Surrey

^that's a pretty narrow viewpoint. It looks like you're equating a small section of Whalley to the rest of the very-large Surrey proper. You could even argue that the "down-on their luck" people of Whalley or even the DTES as being more complex (perhaps not sophisticated, by the usual definition) as anyone in the GVRD.

I don't deal much with either Surrey or Van West (I do work in Surrey though), but I can say that Surrey has been a much friendlier place in general than Van West. I'd prefer friendly to "complex and sophisticated".

you mean stuck up snobs...

Calling those people snobs is no better than labeling people who living in Surrey as trashy.

Though there are some who live up stereotypes, people need to stop wasting their time worrying about what their address says about them and what others think. If you want to live in Surrey, live in Surrey. If you want to live in Vancouver, live in Vancouver.

People move to different cities and municipalities for any number of reasons....schools, parks, proximity to work and/or family, transit, housing size, lot size, price, etc. Doesn't fucking matter.

This city vs. city thing is immature and annoying.

Rent to own :troll:

so i've met people from tsawwassnen, ladner (have lived in both), downtown (currently live), West Van, Van West, East Van, Surrey, Abbortsford, Edmonton, Calgary... the list can go on

the general viewpoint i have on these people is the same as everywhere else, they're mostly made up of dicks. Tsawwassen is slightly better, but then i think about all the uber religious ppl there who think they're better than you b/c they go to church, yet treat you like shit.

living in one town or another makes you no more or less inbred, hick-like, educated, etc. generally ppl are just dicks, for some reason or another.

and yes, i am rather anti social for this reason alone

Can't disagree more, certain neighborhoods attract a certain mindset, Gastown is a great example of it. So many interesting people down here.


I didn't meet any free-thinkers living near 208th and 82nd avenue, that's for sure!

i guess when i see most people as dicks, i don't dissect the more/less interesting dicks from the less/more interesting 'free thinking' dicks

i find the gastown crowd to be the yaletown crowd of 10 years ago, they think they're special and different, but they're not, they're just full of themselves dicks who, while under the guise of independent thought and hipsterdom, actually dress and act like every other hipster around with their skinny jeans, plaid shirts, stupid facial hair and glasses riding around on fixies.

it's the alternative movement of the 90's again - alternative become severely uncool when everyone become alternative, i.e. it was no longer an alternative lifestyle

i'm glad you get along with them so well, but i, as an anti social person, find my interactions with them like plucking my eyeballs from their sockets, it's the same thing over and over again with them, same story, same 'start up' bullshit 'i'm going to change the world with my website that brings people together' or 'i'm going to consolidate groupon and living social'

i think you can clearly see i hate people, in general

i lol'd

my favorite is 'I work in branding' or 'I'm in business development'

Totes, you have to stay true to you friend.