How long can market players ignore this kind of anecdote? Couples making >$500K p.a. feeling priced out. The market is clearly insane. The reconciliation will be brutal. -vreaa
Garth Turner at greaterfool.ca 17 May 2010 -
“I just spoke with a guy who makes a ton of money in the financial business – north of half a million a year – in Vancouver. “You know this market is insane,” he said, “when my wife and I feel we’re actually priced out of the market. I mean, there’s nothing less than one point five that you’d even want to live in.” So, he rents.”
Why not live in Burnaby, New West or North Vancouver. I’d prefer to drive my BMW 45min to work each way than to spend 100% more to live in Vancouver.
chen-> fair point, but, from the point of view of actual value, it can be argued that the entire market is insane. That goes for Burnaby, New West or North Vancouver, too.
While I agree prices are way out of whack, what is a guy who makes over 500K complaining about? Even if he bought a place for 1.5M, that’s only 3X annual income. Boo freakin’ hoo.
I agree the whole market looks like a BP drill site ready to incinerate those close to the top.
But, if I made $500K a year and bought in Burnaby, I’d have my mortgage paid off on a really nice place in less than 5 years. Why slave for a west end address? I don’t see the value.
Chen:
because living 45 minutes from downtown when you need to be at work by 6am is a pain.
oh boo hoo..nothing livable for under $1.5 million? give me a break.
genxr -> It’s relative. What kind of houses can people earning >$500K p.a. afford in any other city in North America?
45 minutes to downtown from burnaby? Try 20-30 depending on what area of downtown.
I lived in north burnaby and drove to downtown in 20 minutes (at 7am). That probably isnt far off from the drive from point grey.
If you going to work at 6am its even better to be in the burbs, no traffic at that time and the people driving that early do it on auto.
I leave from NW at 8am and it takes about 35min to get to the west end.
Anyway $500k is sick income and I wouldn’t complain about anything. With that kind of money I’d want to enjoy it rather than horde it.
Why/how does having a VERY high income make buying a house in an over priced market more acceptable? Houses might be only 3X his income but as VREEA pointed out in a market that is more in line with fundamentals he’d be able to buy a much nicer place. Do I detect some hypocrisy – Because you make a lot of money you should buy something but I’m not because it’s over priced…
My point is only that if you make that kind of money is it really worth clipping metaphorical coupons???
Buy what makes you happy, move on with your life, and do what you do best…making gobs of money. Let the rest of us worry about getting a deal.
This isn’t an issue of what is acceptable, just what’s practical considering ones ability to make up for overpaying.
chen -> You make a good point in that, for the very, very wealthy, a drop in RE prices is not a great inconvenience. However, this applies only to the very wealthy, and perhaps only to modest pullbacks. We are anticipating price drops that may take 40-50% (or more) off the price of a $2.5 million house, and there are very, very few people in Vancouver for whom the loss of a million dollars (after tax!) is just an inconvenience.