Lifestyle...


Could get 3000 sq feet in Langley for $1700 but then:

1. No bike lanes
2. Chain stores
3. Drive everywhere
4. Bland people
5. Anonymous community due to size

etc etc

Pros:

1. Can work on own car
2. Big yard for dog
3. Large house
4. Quiet

Living right in Granville Island would be freakin' sweeeeeeet!!!

https://i.imgflip.com/m13jy.gif


lol coincidence? i think not.

I find it funny how multi considers owning land to be for "status" yet approves of $2700 penthouse for "lifestyle".

I'm not denying penthouses are awesome, they are, but owning a house in the burbs is far less about status compared to renting a DT penthouse if you ask me.

Fair enough, let me counter that:


1. 200k down on a house in Vancouver, 10k left in savings and a 700k mortgage = high status for owning in Vancouver but lifestyle can be hamstrung due to location, responsibilities, lack of community of similar people

Still, a proud achievement for many to say "I own this land, bitch! Get off my lawn!"


2. 210k in the bank still, renting $2,700 condo = low status for renting but high on style and connected via close proximity to great food, night life, bike lanes, more likely to have a community of like-minded people, low on responsibilities of home maintenance allowing for focus on other things, hobbies, travel


Having a lot of money on paper never really interests me, having a lot of experiences within a highly dynamic lifestyle does!

Some people really get off on having a lot more stuff and status than other people.

Lol I don't think paying almost 3k a month in rent will make anyone think you are "low status".

Low status would be living in a cardboard box and snorting 3k worth of coke every month.

Mofo this is a car forum. :whistle:

Depends on the type of hobbies you have, many of mine would not be viable if I was renting an apartment. You end up SOL if you want to do anything that requires more than a storage locker worth of space.

A lot of people who own property will look at you as a "faker" because you can't actually afford to buy. Social circles are often majority renters or owners, not very common to have "mixed" groups. Believe it or not!

Biking keeps the weight off, you can take the spare tire out of your trunk OR exercise and lose 20 lbs on Moonbeam's bike lanes.

:smug:

Multicartual needs to get his hands on this guy: Choices ? Greater Fool ? Authored by Garth Turner ? The Troubled Future of Real Estate

Imagine the coke-fueled, STD-ridden possibilities...

LOL!!!! you keep believing that but you are wrong.

In the very recent past it has been certainly true, owning a house was a solid investment and a necessity for "adulthood"


Now, I believe, people are willing to trade ownership for lifestyle.



Life on the edge is -incredibly- fun, just don't fall off!

Don't lie to yourself. People are just priced out because property prices and income growth are just disproportional.

Oh fuck yeah, I'd need to make 250k a year before I could begin to afford a million dollar mortgage.

There is hardly anything nice enough under 1 million to WANT to buy.

Putting the 'Mainland' in 'Lower Mainland'

lol @ blaming mainlanders for your own short comings
they just know how to play the game

boooooohoooooooooo i can't live in in the city i grew up in... waaaaahhhhhhhhh

you think those mainlanders got to where they are at by staying in their own village?

fucking self entitled people ... you can't afford living somewhere you want? then use your brain and make something out of your self

the people complaining don't have what it takes to make it anyways

We almost bought a penthouse for $1.05m in one of those Cambie corridor buildings. 1000 sq ft with 750 sq ft roof top.

The lifestyle/idea/location is great (close to everything) but I really want land instead.

With a 30 year $800k mortgage, I would need to rent it out for at least $3300 to breakeven. That's if we have more than 1 kid and outgrow the place.

Looking to buy a place soon, looking in downtown Van is depressing.

At least we are only in 10th place.

I threw out that number earlier in the thread too, but it all depends on what the couples's expenses are outside of the mortgage.

If the couple is early in their child rearing years, 1/3 or 1/2 of one spouse's salary could easily be eaten up by childcare costs. With the tax system now, it almost makes sense if one spouse stays at home because of income-splitting.

If the couple doesn't have some kind of RRSP plan or pension plan, they should aim to save 10-15% of their net income. They also need to save for their kids' RESPs which would be 5 grand a year (if they want to get the maximum grant). Insurance is also another thing they need to think about - residence, life, and critical illness. Insurance could easily be several hundred dollars a month if they have pre-existing medical conditions, or a family history. Finally, vehicle costs will likely be several hundred dollars a month, even if they lease something mundane, like a Toyota Rav 4 or Kia Sorrento. Or, I guess they could squeeze in two convertible car seats into a 1990s Honda Accord.

The problem is that there ARE people who "use their brain", i.e., new doctors, lawyers, who are making six figure incomes who can't afford to live here. There was a big thing about it on social media about this exact thing a while back, and while obviously not everyone is being realistic with what they want, you can't honestly say that it is natural and good for Canadians that a single-family detached home will cost around a million dollars.

MY personal issue is that the government is sitting on its hands and knows the problem exists, but refuse to label it as a problem and let things get worse. The role of a government is to look after its own citizens and intervene when citizens are getting fucked over. That is the whole point of why citizenship is even important in the first place. Nearly every first-world country has strict foreign ownership laws (ironically, even China has them) and Canada is seriously lacking in that department.

You may not think it is a good thing for people to live near where they work, but basic logic dictates that this is a good thing.. less pollution, less congestion,
better quality of life, etc... maybe it's not a basic right but it shouldn't be mandatory to be making more than double Canada's average income to live within an hour of work (rush hour commute).

At the end of the day, if nobody in the lower snack bracket can afford to live in the GVRD what happens to all of the service industry? You may not think lower-class, young people etc are important but good luck going to a restaurant, getting coffee, even the people that work on your car, educate your children, take out your garbage, or do your landscaping ultimately won't be able to live here and those services are going to be quite rare...

Yes coz making money while fucking your own ppl is what we all should do. Lets all produce poisonous mike powder for our babies to use, lets all produce fake eggs, cancer causing cooking oil, let's sell rotten meat as new and the list goes on. Or better yet let's hire thousand of workers and make them work for next to nothing and if they go on strike I just have to police beat them till they listen coz I have the gov paid off.

Or what about the corruption going on where gov officials take brides from developers and manufacturers to turn a blind eye. If anyone go against it let's just lock them them or beat them to death. How about let's see apartments that's lacking the building code so that it will fall any sec.

But hey who cares about others as long as I am making the money I can totally discard human life and who cares about polluting my own country coz I got the $$$ now when my own country is all polluted and the air quality is so bad people have to wear a gas mask out, I will just move to Canada and start the cycle again.:rukidding:

I agree with everything you just posted, but don't fool yourself by limiting it to mainlanders. There are just as many subhuman Canadians fucking peoples lives up to steal every last penny they can to live the rich lifestyle, it's just slightly less flagrant here.

lol you need to get your head out of the western propaganda machine

the shit you said shows you know very little of China let alone its economy. Yes, China have its problems with labor issues but literally so did every growing nation in the world. Its not like these Chinese companies purposely produce bad products to get people sick, but to stay competitive they had to cut down on certain cost.

Is it right? No. But they don't have a choice. China has to stay cheap in order to keep growing. China almost didn't even have a middle class 20 years ago so there will be sacrifices during people's upwards mobility. Same thing happen in Europe and the same thing happened in North America.

You can't think outside the box because you were taught to see China/communism as the evil nation that wants to take down western society and this translate on to how you view foreign Chinese investors.

Not every Chinese nationalist coming here stepped on its own people to get here. In fact, it is more than likely its WESTERN companies hiring Chinese workers on a razor thin margin to produce their products that is forcing them to keep wages and quality of life down.

Learn a thing or two first before you start judging with prejudice glasses. Western companies are likely just as evil as you see the Chinese companies, they just know how to hide it better.

.....

I totally agree with you.

I do think its important for people to live close to where they work, in fact, I am currently finding it hard looking for a place for myself. But these are the sacrifices I have to evaluate for comfort. I can't expect that "because I work there, I demand to live close to there" attitude. It is a luxury. Whether you can afford that luxury is a different story.

Yes, people living farther away can cause congestion and pollution, and that's why Vancouver needs that Yes vote for more and better public transit (this is another debate). If the public transit was sufficient, it wouldn't matter that much to live that close to work. People can spread out more, move to and develop new communities and perhaps even business and work will follow them. At that point, if people are willing to move out more, housing prices will start to balance itself as demand for high density areas goes down.