McLovin at vancouvercondo.info 14 Nov 2010 10.01am - “I was having a frank conversation with my wife and I told her that we may never own again in Vancouver. This is not to say that we won’t take the savings and put that into investment properties in other places where the numbers make sense. Prices would have to drop 50% here for us to consider buying here and who knows if that is going to happen? Truthfully, I really don’t care, I am living my life and loving it. That being said, once you get your mind around the fact you may never buy here it feels really liberating.
In my opinion the stigma around renting in YVR has started to abate. I no longer get strange looks when I tell people I rent in fact a few say that’s a good idea. This has not been the case for the last four years.”
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- Advice Regarding Renting In Vancouver, Please – “Unfortunately, the Vancouver rental stock is absolutely atrocious. It just seems like every landlord is looking for someone to pay 100% of their mortgage on a crappy place through rental income.”
- “I just visited Manhattan for a week, and happened to snap some real estate ads on both the Upper West and Upper East sides of the island. Compare to Vancouver. It simply doesn’t compute.”
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- “The mortgage company told me they were calling in my 40-year, 0-down mortgage. I have paid nearly sixty thousand dollars towards it, but, nearly five years in, I have yet to touch the principal.”
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- “My folks find themselves at 65 still owing half the value of their home and recreation property to the bank. After almost 30 years of ownership in the BPOE and a number of boom markets, they have very little to show for it.”
- “Rent for $2,200 a month or buy and have a mortgage of $4,310 per month. Why would anyone buy?”
- “They were talking about two couples they knew who had recently bought a lot and planned to each build a house on it and live as neighbours.”
- Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association Annual First-Time Buyer Seminar Attendance Plummets
- Mom and Pop Get It Wrong In All Markets, Time And Again
- The average British Columbian homeowner is not going to pay off their mortgage by the time they retire.
- “He’s sold all his properties except his current one, which is now for sale. He explained that the market’s currently in crash mode, worst that he’s ever seen.”
- “One of my old high school buddies finally got her mother to sell the family home in Kitsilano – sold for over $1M, monies realized after debt paid off $185K.”
- “I know someone who just declared bankruptcy because her condo was assessed at $150k and she bought it presale north of $250k in 2005 or 2006.”
- Sturdy, With Views – “Calling Froogle Scott!… Is Dr. Scott ‘In The House’?” [Not In This One, Certainly]
- “She said the market was dead in Victoria and that it would remain so for a very long time. I asked how she knew. Her answer was fascinating and should scare the pants off the real estate crowd.”
- Kits Notes – “I’m pretty sure that this is the first 3+ bedroom property of any type that I’ve seen in the 5 years I’ve lived here that is priced below $700K.”
- “A beautiful Belfast home, in the equivalent of 1st Shaughnessy, bought at their RE peak in 2007 for £3.5 million, has now sold for £800K, almost 80%-off. The market didn’t suffer any significant economic shocks. Rates & unemployment didn’t skyrocket. They didn’t build more land. Sentiment just changed and the prices fell and fell.”
- “Two family members of hers are trapped, underwater, in condos on the East Side.”
- “Interprovincial migration is not saying good things about BC’s economy.”
- Vancouver RE: Not As Expensive Provided You Don’t Think – “It’s clear that our perception of affordability has been coloured by living on a continent where housing is unusually inexpensive.”
- More Undisclosed RE Industry Insiders Publicized As Clients – “In 1995, Allan and Karin Hoegg were mortgage-free. But no more. Today their Vancouver home is a valuable source of income as they plan for full retirement.”
- Rumor that some OV units will be reduced by 20%.
- Downside Weights On The Vancouver RE Market – “One of the older guys (over 60) mention to the guy beside him that he and his wife were thinking about selling their family home, and renting, in order to get some of the money that was locked up in the house.”
- “My buddy was looking to upgrade to a house in the Coquitlam area. With 200k extra for a home, that’s half of lifetime saving between him and his wife.”
- “I was walking in the Fraser neighborhood yesterday, I noticed that the population, on average, seem to be composed of workers. I belong to the top 5 percent in terms of income. Nevertheless, I cannot afford any of the houses for sale in that neighbourhood.”
- “Vancouver is an urban resort whose value mostly resides in its real estate and not much else.”
- “Rogers Communications is expanding into RE; aiming to relaunch website; providing critical data that can help potential buyers assess the value of a property from the comfort of their home computer.”
- I’m only 50 and I can just about retire if I want to, all because of a single simple decision – “When prices rebounded to their former highs, then rocketed another 30% higher to what I considered to be totally unsustainable levels, I decided that only a fool would pass up a second opportunity to harvest such a massive non-taxable capital gain, and in 2011 I sold my place.”
- The Vacant Lot of Versailles, Richmond.
- “I don’t think that most people think things are going to crash, just that there is going to be a slight correction, but it was amazing to me how sentiment has changed, and the fact Vancouver RE is too high was just understood.”
- “The ‘investor’ who purchased our house put it up for sale two months later, in January 1981, but the bubble had burst.”
- For A City To Have That Kind Of Vacancy, It’s Like Cancer – “Downtown, the vacant unit rate is so high that it’s as though there were 35 towers at 20 storeys apiece – all empty.”
- “What’s the worst that can happen? You can’t pay your mortgage, so sell your house! No fear.”
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“Prices would have to drop 50% here for us to consider buying here and who knows if that is going to happen?”
It’s not “if”, it’s “when”. Free money can’t suport excessive valuation forever.
I agree with this anecdote!
I have to say I am getting kinda sick of renting. It is worthwhile because we are saving lots of money, but the lack of autonomy in deciding what to do with the property gets old. Want to mount a shelf somewhere? Either check with the landlord and get a long-winded response about why he’d prefer you not (or he provides his own extra-crappy solution) or just do it on the sly and hope he also considers it an improvement after the fact. If we rented high-end, then maybe there would be nothing that needs improving, but we rent something that is roughly what we would buy in a normal market (so we can realize the savings in renting) and there are lots of areas that could be improved in the living area. We pretty much write-off any improvements we make as sunk costs. We’ve managed to negotiate some money back for improvements in the past, but the landlords have always been reluctant, even if it now allows then to increase the rent for the next tenant.
For now, it’s worth it, but we’ll be moving in less than a year (because we need another bedroom) and I don’t think it’ll be to another rental. Hopefully the market will have corrected somewhat in the meantime.
I should also add that among my associates at work I am the only one who still rents, despite almost being the oldest, but I’ve never felt the scorn that other people report.
What I find funny is that people are still willing to buy new places and rent them out for a significant loss! I had a friend tell me the other day that he had just sold and was planning on buying a new place. I said something along the lines of, “well, if you’re going to stay somewhere for the long term and you’re prepared for higher interest rates, I guess buying isn’t so bad”. To which he replied something along the lines of “Who cares if its long or short term? Investment in Vancouver real estate is always a good idea. Worst case scenario, I’ll rent the place out if I need to move again”.
Then I threw up a little in my mouth and changed the subject.
Your friend speaks from experience. For most Canadians, real estate is a warm and fuzzy thing. It’s a golden egg. The notion of danger is completely absent. I’m 33, and I’m the only RE bear among my friends. They all bought at the peak. Driving a car at high speed is nice if you’re not aware of the existence of car crashes.
Maybe I’m in bizarro world but almost all my close friends understand prices are too high and most of them understand why to boot.