I wouldn't get too excited.

Mayor's speculation tax is a set-up | Vancouver Observer

I find it is a bit rich coming from Rennie. He had done more than anyone in Vancouver to gentrify China town, East side. Why didn't he do anything for the residents before he booted them out?

I got a feeling Rennie realises that he is running out of schmucks to "use" his system, also realising City of Vancouver and his besttie the mayor is broke and saddled with paying off their debt for Olympics for the next few decades. He wants to get some extra cash from the province and the Feddies instead.

What he is asking is social justice for the well connected. or I am too old and cynical?

Of course it is a setup.. I am glad Christy Clarke didn't waste her time responding to trolls.

oh shut the fuck up why are poor people whining? Just move to somewhere else. I know it sucks but Vancouver is not the first one.

Maybe Vancouver is becoming one of globally recognized big city, like Tokyo, Rome, Paris, Shanghai, New York, etc.

As we know, Japan was not even close to the USA only like 50 years ago in terms of modernization and economy. However in 1970s and 1980s Japan grew at astonishing rate and Tokyo suddenly became one of the biggest city in the world.

Buying a house, food, everything is super expensive in Tokyo.
Yep living cost is just so much over there and all the poor Japanese people(not necessarily poor, but supposedly middle class) got pushed away to other prefectures and a lot of rich Japanese executives moved in, including American and European executives and rich foreign people. If you look around the street in Tokyo, there's lots of Lamborghini, Mercedes, BMW, Maserati...just like how Vancouver and Richmond are becoming.

To be on fair side, those rich people worked their ass off and had no personal time. Took huge risk in their lives to get up to that level.
If you're just working 9am to 5pm jobs 5 days a week, living in a world class city isn't really going to happen...unless you make huge salary.

Say that to the kid who is using daddy and mommy's money coz there are no shortage of those kids in Vancouver. Law what law? So I crash my Lamborghini in doing so ran over someone? No problem I just go buy a new one next day.

What the fuck are you talking about?
What does this have to do with the mass exodus of Vancouverites?
Speak english filthy mainlander!


:speakeng:

I think it depends on the pace on change.. for Vancouver it is a tad too quick. vs Tokyo. Also Japan have "death taxes", people who inherit houses often have to pay a huge chunk of inheritance tax. We don't have this in Canada. That evens the playing field a lot.

eg When I bought my townhouse in Coal harbour it was 2001 and it was $600k and my income then was in the high 80k. Now the price went up nearly a magnitude but income of any sector haven't gone anywhere that much..

If you have got in early, great for you. If you haven't, you pretty much have to give up on the idea of owning in Vancouver.

This is an interesting article saying rise in housing cost around the world is due to hedge funds, which I would say is partially true. That is a sector where wages have increased substantially but unfortunately Vancouver is no where near the center of.

In this thread, a settler nation with no education of history still believes in the "Canadian dream"... but atleast the peasants of the past knew who their overlords were.
http://i.imgur.com/ZG3HWI5.jpg

yea but your networth probably went up with your housing price, so good on you for buying at the right time.

now imagine if a tax was imposed on "foreign ownership", your housing price will likely drop, so will your equity in your house.

at the end of the day, I think a dual income family making ~150K combine income can have a decent life in van or the closer suburbs like burnaby/richmond etc. any less than that though it can be difficult.
as for prime real estate like DT or west side van....you will need to be the top 1% to be able to live there..no different than lower manhattan NY, Nobs Hill SF etc

Anything less than 200k / year downtown is lower class for sure

Tic Tac, is that you?

Im not Tic Tac... but I would like my fail button back. :smug:

the problem isn't that vancouver is turning into said world class city, if it were, rents would go up in lock step with housing prices AND this would be partially driven by an increase in economic activity (look at the cities you have mentioned, plus london, singapore, etc. - all economic hubs).

vancouver has gone up based on speculation and capital risk flight (though i find that an ironic term, as capital is very much at risk in vancouver).

in the loooooong run, it will settle down, so you can either rent and enjoy life (multicartual, myself, many others), or you can complain about it... with no difference made

the great thing about the free world is that you have options to invest your money in loads of different places, and also to rent loads of different places to live. maybe they're not all ideal, but life isn't perfect, it's about being happy

Here is the exact reason I would never get worked up about Vancouver's real estate prices:

Barbara Yaffe: Real estate ?pandemonium?

with the key passage being:

"Ford’s own grandfather purchased a Richmond home in 1961 for $15,500. It is now valued at more than $1 million."


But looking closely, if you put $15,500 in the S&P500 in 1961, it would be worth $2.9M today (simplified calc using CAGR of the Stock Market: Annualized Returns of the S&P 500)

now, there's a lot to consider here (rent vs own price differentials, not being able to mortgage the $15,500, etc.) - but the point i'm making is this - the media is spoon feeding you one bias side of a story, in the end of the day, rents are relatively ok, so rent and be happy, or buy and be happy - just don't worry about something outside of your control!

Vancouver is not even close to any of those cities, I'm sorry but it just isn't. Claiming that it is sounds like something a tourism agency or politician would say.

If you massively oversimplify the comparison that sounds great and all, but next to nobody is buying a house with cash so good luck getting a mortgage just to stick it in the stock market for 54 years. Meanwhile you still need to pay for that mortgage and pay for a place to live since your mortgage is sitting in the stock market.

You also need to consider this line from that page you linked

That sounds good when interest rates are lower than 3-4%, but if you check the historical rates (https://www.ratehub.ca/mortgage-rate-history-canada download the last one in the chart) even if you got prime you were having a pretty shitty time up until 2010.

BBY is not affordable. Parent's house could easily sell for 900k+. Is not even luxury or anything. Just a regular 2100sq ft 2 storey housed located around North Burnaby. Our neighbour sold his house down the block for 1.2m+ is bigger for sure but not worth that much. Same with my parent's house.Even Coquitlam, New West housing price are pretty high. Most likely you need to move out to Port Coq, Port Moody, Surrey, Detla or even White Rock. Any other place for a 1bd apartment out in BBY is around 300k+

Even with a combined salary of 150-160ish?
Two professionals in middle management level jobs (or trades) can make $70-80k easy. That's approx $8000 per month of combines net income. You are telling me that can't support a mortgage of a $700k mortgage (200k down payment). Btw no sarcasm here.. Honest question.

I mean I know if u make $40-50k a year in van u are pretty much stuck to renting or living out in Abbotsford or whatever, but at the 70-80k (provided it's dual income of around that amount) it should be doable.

They key is dual income, give the progressive tax system, 2 person making 70k each will take home more than 1 person making 140k while the spouse or partner makes zero.

Alot of people don't have 200k to throw down. So they put down 100k and have payments of $5000 inc property tax, hydro, etc. Even at a combined income thats alot of $$$

Imagine if they kept that 100k in the bank and, you know, lived their lives while renting a BEAUTIFUL PENTHOUSE at the Waterfall building?


2 Level Penthouse + Private Rooftop @ The Waterfall Building


Buying property is so overrated, it is a status symbol more than anything

inflation adjusted return = all you need to know.

i have no idea what you're saying - real estate basically only just beats inflation, i'd rather have 6+% real return, but that's just me.

You skipped the main point of my post, which is that next to nobody buys a house cash. So that $15.5k from 1961 would have to be borrowed, and what you would be paying to borrow that money would outweigh what you are gaining from investing that money. On top of that, a mortgage isn't just an investment, everyone needs to live somewhere.

Unbiased eh? You probably just 'forgot' to check off 'adjusted for inflation' then...

Without inflation = $2.9m
With inflation = $373,395

Fuck. That place is awesome. Wish wife was done school right now and I'd jump on that.

Next time I move it will be either the Waterfall building or to Tofino!!!


Maybe I will move to Tofino for a winter and come back for a summer at the Waterfall


Not going to move probably for another year though :)

decent little spot but 950sq feet for $2700? :/

he does make a point with this statement.

i bet they don't have threads like these in the Ferrari and Lamborghini forms.

LOL!!!