5th generation Vancouver at VREAA 22 Feb 2011 3:00pm – “I also know of many professionals (Professors, doctors, many teachers, planners, engineers) who have decided to leave the city and even the country because of the RE costs and many jobs that can’t be filled. I have been approached five times over the last year for a certain $120,000 a year job in Vancouver and have learned that most of my colleagues in similar positions have also been headhunted. A few out-of-towners have been offered the job but all declined when they learned about RE values here. The rest of us turned down the offer because the cost to relocate to Vancouver from Maple Ridge/Langley/Coquitlam was too high and commuting for 2 hours a day was not on.
But my biggest concern involves my children who are now young adults in arts jobs. They have woken up to the fact that they will never be able to afford anything beyond a small condo in Surrey. So, my family’s legacy of helping this city for over 150 years, being involved in coaching, volunteering, and leaders in the community is likely to end with this generation. The kids are looking to relocate to New Zealand, Montreal or somewhere in the US.”
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Latest Anecdotes:
- Chat Thread
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- “My best guess: this property is now an ‘investment hold’ and will be built ‘when prices recover’. Good luck on that!”
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- Graphic – Degrees of Housing Overvaluation in Canada
- The Rare Individual With A Negative Ownership Premium
- 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.”
- Ben Rabidoux In Vancouver Next Week
- “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.”
- ‘Vancouver City Hall: Housing Report Card 2012′; Plus Revised Version
- “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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If your children can’t afford real estate in Vancouver then that’s a consequence of their choice to be employed in the ‘arts’, a vocation which does not generally place a high priority on financial remuneration.
Not the major issue. Incomes cannot support prices; the ones left buying need to pay a high price and often take on too much debt. That will be the lasting legacy the city will have to deal with.
Or maybe the kids could get a side job as a realtor?
And its easy, just slime your way through!
Is there a list of approved occupations for Vancouver? Realtors, bankers…Anything else?
Money launderer and tax evader.
‘Grow-op’er, drug dealer, gang member, etc. Sorry, had to put that in.
Why not burnaby? Commute is only 15 minutes to downtown. Or even Richmond. Take the Skytrain and you’ll be in Vancouver in under 45 minutes.
Are these not viable options?
A word of caution about New Zealand. Sure, it might be the most beautiful country in the world, have the nicest people, and real estate there is really cheap but the job market is not the greatest unless you want to work in agriculture or tourism. Most Kiwis head to Australia or the UK for work.
If they have one working arm they can bowl for the Black Caps.
Ouch. Sad but true. Although against the Aussies it was really their batting that let them down, too many wickets just thrown away.
Australia can be beaten this time around against patience and discipline, their quicks are all over the place and the team that waits and punishes their bad deliveries should put enough runs on the board to beat them. And not bringing Mike Hussey over was just stupid.
“If your children can’t afford real estate in Vancouver then that’s a consequence of their choice to be employed in the ‘arts’, a vocation which does not generally place a high priority on financial remuneration.”
Raj, – I am sorry but most people including business people, lawyers, teachers etc cannot afford real estate in Vancouver, not just “arts” vocations. In terms of single family homes, nope – they moved to the burbs. These are people I know in their late twenties/early thirties who have recently married and would rather live outside vancouver in a sfh than in a condo. The problem most of my friends have is also the lack of jobs in their fields. Also people can be enticed to get paid much more in other cities and provinces.
I didn’t want to initiate class warfare on this site … only wanted to point out that choosing certain vocations have consequences.
In terms of anyone saying “most people including business people, lawyers … cannot afford real estate”, this is obviously incorrect. Someone is buying real estate and driving prices higher in Vancouver. And don’t tell me that it’s all “mainland Chinese”. I think many people have blinders on – just because they cannot afford real estate in Vancouver, it means that it’s un-affordable and most others cannot.
If people can be enticed to be paid more in other provinces they are free to leave. Obviously most do not. Obviously more people are coming to Vancouver then leaving. The market prices simply reflect demand/desirability.
I’m a professional who certainly can afford to buy and live in Vancouver. Heck, I won’t even need a mortgage. There’s just one problem: I am not a fool.
Agree with ATP.
I am a successful professional and can easily afford to buy in Vancouver but will not. But is it not the difference between “being successful” and “being a fool” ???
Yes, it’s silly to think that the only people who can afford to (and thus, should) live in this city are high-income professionals-lawyers, doctors, etc. Well, who is going to ring up the groceries at the grocery store? Who is going to take the blood at the lab? Who is going to help you make your deposit at the bank? You can’t reasonably have a city full of just lawyers and doctors! Houses are for regular people, not just the wealthy. The rest of us can’t live in tents.
Exactly. And on the other side: I don’t imagine I’ll be a high roller in my lifetime but if I was, I’d want more than a blue collar bungalow for my million bucks.
Sorry VREA my BS monitor went off with this one.
Vancouver isn’t even 150 years old!
Unless their ancestors moved here when it was a few logging camps, then the poster has over-estimated his attachment to the city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver
Though I agree with the sentiment.
hahaha — excellent catch, it slipped us by, thanks.
If ’5th generation’ is reading this, could you please clarify?
[perhaps they simply did 5 generation x 30 years math, rather than working out when their first ancestor arrived here. Or have they perhaps first nation blood??]
I’m just over thirty and I have friends or friends of friends whose incomes I estimate are well above 6 figures. Three of them have bought duplexes as a means of avoiding the clusterfuck of home renovation.
[UK Guardian] – Cost of living crisis pushes ‘squeezed middle’ off the housing ladderPeople on low to middle incomes have had their ability to buy their own homes dramatically reduced
“The foundation will say that 41% of young low-to-middle earners live in privately rented accommodation compared with 14% in 1988, suggesting a dramatic reduction in the number of those who can afford to get on the housing ladder.
It will also highlight evidence showing that someone at the lower end of these incomes will take 45 years to accumulate a deposit to buy a home if they save an average 5% of their income a year. This compares with less than 10 years during periods in the 1980s and 1990s.”…
http://tinyurl.com/5s76ayb
Fish10,
New Westminster was settled by the 1860s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Westminster
Good post from FishYRE on why the VRE bears have been wrong for so long – he does not hold out hope for a quick correction:
“…we cannot come to simple calculations based on average income to try and work out what prices are reasonable. There are just too many unknown variables that cannot be accounted for.”
http://fishyre.blogspot.com/2011/02/why-have-bears-been-wrong-for-so-long.html
” In terms of anyone saying “most people including business people, lawyers … cannot afford real estate”, this is obviously incorrect. Someone is buying real estate and driving prices higher in Vancouver. And don’t tell me that it’s all “mainland Chinese” – Yes i do agree, I am just using some examples of people I know starting out as lawyers etc making close to 100K. They could have bought in Vancouver, but chose to go for the burbs for a larger house/lot etc. Just look at the frantic action around Douglas Park/Main street area. Those houses are mostly locals looking to get into that area because it is seen as trendy.
Just a note to Fish10, I think your BS monitor, might need a tune up. Not sure if you know about Fort Vancouver, and the island, aswell as fur traders, who populated the vancouver area well over 150 years ago!