No kids, small mortgage, no other debts. RRSP and TFSA pretty much maxed. We save quite a bit especially with COVID but are also not frugal.

We like our lifestyle (able to travel yearly, dining out occasionally, not having to pinch pennies etc.) and so decided based on the max mortgage payment we'd be comfortable with taking is about 30% of take home pay. With the equity and savings we do have for the down payment, our own calculations found $1.1m asking is what we'd be comfortable with leveraging. We were looking at poco/pomo but have noticed listings that used to be $1.1m are going for $1.3m+ nowadays.

We can afford more but do not want to be house poor or overleveraged.

+1 North Delta. I bought in July, $1,060,000, SFH. Older place like 70s or 80s, but fully renovated. Wiring is an issue out here tho, hard to get insurance for a house wired with aluminum.

Neighborhood is very safe and family oriented out here. Plus I'm like 15-20 mins away from everything. 20 mins away from Bridgeport, as we speak right now. Aside from the occasional crash on 91/Alex Fraser, it's really not that bad.

only downside is that unless you like brown food there's really nothing on Uber eats or doordash. and if you have an older home like me you have curves that aren't really curbs so good thing is that you don't curb your wheels but it's not very good for low cars

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Being leveraged out the ass to live in North Delta..that’s the dream..

LULKEKW





:okay:

what's crazy is that you think that buying a house for 1.5m in North Delta or Surrey should be acceptable

200kish is like 12-13k post tax per month. With a million dollar mortgage you’d be paying about 5k before property taxes and home insurance. So after home costs being left with like 7k for all the other stuff life comes with, is ok, but it’s certainly not going to be living the dink life you could be living otherwise. Especially if you add in a big commute, and want to save fairly aggressively, because let’s be real, we are going to need at least 2 million for retirement if we want to live well from 60 on. The numbers don’t look that sweet, and let’s be honest, as much as everyone from RS likes to act like they make 6 figures and only bang models, over 200k is a very good income, and not the norm in the lower mainland. It still is indicative of people way over extending for housing here.
There is a point where it’s just not worth either owning a house, or living somewhere that you need to work an, I’m assuming, high stress job and have to choose between owning a home, in fucking Surrey no less, or enjoying yourself.

Why not buy something for $1.5 with a rental unit. If you have no kids you don't really need a 3000 sq house. The $1600 that you will get for the basement should cover a lot of your mortgage. Basically paying for your house compared to you paying for the full mtg that you have now. And no strata

The grass is always greener... people with a condo want a big house. People with a big house want a condo. Has anybody else noticed this?

Ha another reason to get the fuck out of Van. They can enjoy the crack heads while they camp at the esso for vis

:lawl:

We live right near a shelter in North van. It’s so different. Seems like many of them chose not to be DT to avoid the shit. Tons of nice people, always want to say hi to the dog, and property crime is low. I’ve heard they have a code to be civil with the rest of the residents and as a result there is a lot better of a relationship between the classes over here. Might also have something to do with the way they are treated by the wealthier people over here. The rich vs. Poors mentality in Vancouver has increased the toxicity levels. These people have to live too, and examples of people blaming entire groups for the actions of individuals is fuelling the fire.

^^ if you own it's gonna suck, why would anyone paying $1m plus want to live near a homeless shelter. I've personally looked at a newer build in new West with the potential to have a low income building be built next door. It sat for like 6mth plus and sold below asking finally a few weeks ago. There's no benefit to you, except chance of higher crime, more random foot traffic, property value and resale is gonna hurt big time.

Well I do own and selling prices for the same unit are 195%of what I paid 5 years ago, so I guess it doesn’t really matter? That’s the fun part about numbers, opinions don’t matter.
As I said, there is no uptick in crime near me over any parts of North Vancouver.

What's comparable rent like? It kinda depends what someones long term plan is, when you're making that kind of money there's always the option to live cheaper and bank a ton of money for a few years and then gtfo. But that only works if you're okay leaving the GVRD.

I would argue that this is no better than living in a condo because you're still sharing a space with people whom you have to manage and deal within the constraints of rules that favour tenants.

If we were still DINKs, a nice large end-unit townhouse (2000-2500 square feet) with a driveway and double garage would be all that we need. Less maintenance (for you and your strata) which leaves time for trips around the world, only one neighbour to share a wall with, and enough room for hobbies like a project car, a music studio, or a small garden.

Sort of insurance related, if you're going away even for the weekend I recommend turning your water off.

Sunday night I was cooking dinner and I heard water, I thought it was my son in the shower upstairs but it did sound a bit different. Then my son comes downstairs, you have a shower? His answer was no so I go upstairs, walk into my bedroom and step into water it's pouring out of my bathroom. I legit had 1/2" of water in my bathroom, the braided line that fed my toilet blew.

I bet it wasn't leaking more than 20 minutes and I had a river in my bathroom, water halfway through my bedroom and coming through my kitchen ceiling. If we were out that could have been really bad and if we were away for the weekend it would have been a gut. All said we got off easy, glad I was home. Not even making an insurance claim, was able to save the floor in the bedroom the only real damage is the kitchen ceiling that I can fix myself.

This is one of my worst nightmares. Other than turning off water when being away for extended periods, what can be done to reduce this risk?

Has anyone looked into these smart water shut off systems? https://www.moen.com/flo

I always shut off the water if we go away for a couple of days. It takes little effort to do. I had a similar water event happen at my parents' place around 20 years ago. My sister and I were home, and I started hearing water rushing like someone was taking a shower upstairs. My sister was watching TV, so I knew it wasn't her. When I went to investigate, there was an inch of water in the bathroom. The tank on the toilet cracked in half! Fortunately, we were home so there wasn't much damage.

Yup this is exactly our thought process when we decided the recent uptick in housing prices has pushed it out of our reach to be comfortable with.

Living responsibly with a rule of thumb of 50% take-home pay for living expenses means mortgage would only about 30%.

That said, we own a 3-bed 2-bath condo that is the size of some SFH that we've seen, so it's not the shithole that GS8 makes all apartments make it out to be (at least for me, maybe for him it still is a shithole lol).

I was pointing out that perception that any living besides SFH is 'for the poors' despite having what would be considered a very comfortable income. When you really crunch the numbers, unfortunately that income does not go very far (or rather, it goes too far when you have to buy in North Delta and still be over-leveraged).

^ that’s offensive.

Fair enough, tactless joke. Edited.

This.

My gf and I are in the same boat as you, by the way.

It's insane that a dual household income of $200K leaves desired housing out of reach.

Pretty much anywhere else in North America such household income would be totally reasonable to own a home in a desirable area.

What the fuck have we been conditioned to here?

1 - Bought a house years ago before prices were insane (or inherited a house)

2 - Mom and Dad gave you money, or you inherited their money.

Choose one. Not saying there aren't people out there that overcome the odds but even an above average income couple ain't buying a house from traditional 'saving up from scratch' today unless you're out in the sticks.

Noob question here... can you shut off the main water supply while the water heater and the in-floor heat (connected to the water heater) is still on? In principle, everything should be a closed loop as long as the taps aren't turned on but I was wondering if I need to turn everything off I'm closing the main water supply.

^Westopher. I'm moving to a pre sale townhouse (27North) in July/August near Parkgate Village. Just wanting your opinion on the area for raising a family (expecting baby number 2 by the end of the month) I've been born and raised in Vancouver my whole life and is currently living in Kits.

I couldn't have made a better decision to put money down on a pre sale in January vs hoping for the right SFH to come up in North Vancouver with the way the market is going. The weekly updates on SFH sold property in the area of North Vancouver is so ridiculous, I am glad to not have to bid and compete with these crazy prices.

I absolutely love North van. Iirc 27 North is near queensbury? Dope sandwich shop and restaurant nearby, close to the breweries, tons of green space. Traffic is terrible at times, but most of the time it’s good. Issues on either bridge can really fuck things up on any east/west roads in central NV though. Honestly I can’t think of a better place to raise kids if you are the outdoorsy type. When you get over here shoot me a message and I can give you the rundown of the good spots to eat and see.
I think North van has a great community feel, people who say hello, lots of young families etc.