bubbles at VREAA 27 Jun 201 6:45am -
“My wife and I are in our mid-30s with what others would call wildly successful careers here. We, however, hate the lack of any real economy or even culture coupled with the insecurity-manifesting-as-egomania of most residents. If I have to hear one more time about how Vancouver is the best place on earth from someone who’s never visited any other major centre in Canada (let alone the world) I’ll scream. Yes, the outdoor activities are nice, but experience living elsewhere has taught me that Vancouver residents do not have a monopoly on their pursuit. Despite the fact that it would mean essentially re-starting our careers, we are seriously thinking about moving to Seattle or San Diego or at least elsewhere in Canada. There is no way we would pick Vancouver as our home if starting again from scratch.”
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Type of Anecdote
- 01. He Said, She Said (247)
- 02. Profiting from the Boom (441)
- 03. Changed my Life (103)
- 04. Changed my Career (38)
- 05. Where do Buyers get the money? (958)
- 06. Held my Nose and Leapt (96)
- 07. Avoiding Vancouver (375)
- 08. Overextended Buyers (1182)
- 09. Delaying Buying (315)
- 10. Demoralized Renters? (362)
- 11. Regrets about Investing in RE (417)
- 12. Effects of Development (274)
- 13. 2010 Olympics Related (74)
- 14. Social Effects of the Boom (1255)
- 15. Misallocation of Resources (958)
- 16. Missed The Boat? (236)
- 17. The Froogle Scott Chronicles (27)
- 18. Spot The Speculator (171)
- 19. BlastRadiusPostCards (17)
- 20. The Limitless Demand Argument For Ongoing Market Strength (70)
- 21. Vancouver RE-Verse [Found Poems] (8)
- 22. RE References In Popular Culture (41)
- 23. Jumping The Shark (1)
- 24. Policies On Housing (10)
- 25. Epigrams For The Bubble (1)
- 26. Premature Calls Of "Bottom" (3)
- 27. Seller Panic (3)
- 28. Erroneous Causation Theories For Falling Prices (7)
- 29. Bubblespeak (1)
- Uncategorized (176)
Blogroll
- 01 Vancouver Condo Info
- 02 AmericaCanada [retired, no archive]
- 03 Housing Analysis
- 04 RealEstateTalks BC
- 05 Vancouver RE and then some
- 06 Whispers from the Village on the Edge of the Rainforest
- 07 Greater Fool
- 08 Canada Bubble
- 09 Rob Chipman's blog
- 10 YatterMatters
- 11 condohype [retired; archives available]
- 12 vancouver (un)real estate
- 13 Agent Will's Stats [retired]
- 14 Landlord Rescue
- 15 The Economic Analyst
- 16 Canadian Housing Price Charts
- 17 Hoodsurf [retired Jun 2011]
- 18 World Housing Bubble
- 19 Vancouver Price Drop
- 20 North American Economics
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Latest Anecdotes:
- Chat Thread
- Taking A Break
- “My best guess: this property is now an ‘investment hold’ and will be built ‘when prices recover’. Good luck on that!”
- Man Loses $745,000 Vancouver Condo Deposit
- 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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- Chat Thread wp.me/pcq1o-5vD 3 weeks ago
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Anecdotes Banks Bears blogs British Columbia Bubble Bulls buyers Canada Capitulation China CMHC Construction Debt Economy Employment Fear Foreign buyers Fundamentals Government Housing Interest Rates Landlords Life Media Mortgage brokers Okanagan Olympics Ownership Prediction Real Estate Realtors Relationships Rent Retirement RE_ATM sellers Sentiment Speculators Toronto US Vancouver Victoria Visual Anecdote Whistler
Leave. Seriously.
so much bragging – same old story
“If I have to hear one more time about how Vancouver is the best place on earth from someone who’s never visited any other major centre in Canada (let alone the world) I’ll scream.”
yeah – this would drive me nuts too.. Maybe people will chill out if housing normalizes. If you do decide to leave, and if you work in tech, that industry is hiring in Seattle right now.
I lived in San Diego for 10 years. If you’re looking for culture it’s a little bit sleepy down there. San Diego is to LA what Victoria is to Vancouver. We had a nice place near the beach and the weather was great but LA was where the action was. LA is a sprawling mega-city with traffic like you’ve never seen, but wow – it really had it all. I know a lot of people hate it but we went up as much as we could.
San Francisco is nice too, but the weather isn’t what you might expect for California. It can be cool even in the summer but what a city! It’s simply gorgeous and has culture to spare. SF is on my short list of American cities I’d retire in.
If you’re able to get away from work for a while spend some time in these cities during the off season before you move. I’d recommend at least a couple of weeks to drive from San Diego to San Francisco and really absorb the cities and the differences between SoCal and NorCal.
Check out Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach (OB and PB as the locals say), Mission Beach and La Jolla in San Diego. The zoo and wild anilmal park are unreal and don’t skip Balboa Park! Other than that you’ve basically got the desert and easy access to the third world slum that is Northern Mexico. Tijuana is disgusting but if you must go, take a $5 cab to Avenida Revolucion (the tourist zone) and leave before dark. It’s third world city in a third world country rife with pick pockets, corrupt cops, drug dealers and prostitutes.
LA! OK where to start. The beaches are nowhere near downtown or Hollywood but hey – welcome to California. Everything is spread out. Downtown has LACMA, MOMA, Little Tokyo and lots of office buildings that are dead after dark. Hollywood is Hollywood. Sunset Strip, Capitol Records building, big HOLLYWOOD sign, Scientologists etc. It’s a scene. Tourists like there’s no tomorrow. But it’s fun! Go to a television taping, Universal Studios or see you favorite band play in a bar for $20. I’ve seen the Tragically Hip, James Brown and BB King all play in bars for $30-$50. Every band you ever listened to lives there now and plays around town in shows you’ll never hear about unless you live there too. And your favourite sitcom actor is probably doing stand up comedy in your neighborhood bar just for the hell of it. It’s just that kind of town. Oh, and Disney. Check out Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Magic Mountain if you like that sort of thing. Into sports? Kings, Ducks, Lakers, Clippers, Angels, Dodgers. And you can always head down to San Diego for a Chargers game if you’re a football fan. There’s also the Getty Museum, Venice Beach, Santa Monica and seriously I could write for an hour. There a lot of haters but I love LA. Do check it out.
San Francisco. Only been there a few times as tourist so I can only say that yes, it’s as beautiful as it looks in pictures and every time we go we promise ourselves to go back sooner. The vibe is great – a big old American city with history, culture, night life and everything you would expect in a truly world class city. It’s a little cooler than LA and SD but it’s just a whole different animal. You don’t move there for the weather. It’s pricy (but not so much for a house these days!) but it’s really a case of you get what you pay for. You can save money by living elsewhere but then you wouldn’t live in San Francisco.
One thing about Cali is that everyone dreams of moving there and getting a foothold can be difficult. It’s a very transient state and there’s a definite local vs outsiders vibe that you’ll notice at first. It’s like nowhere else in America in that it has it’s own culture and there’s even a distinct difference between North and South. If you’ve never lived in the States expect culture shock. It’s 90% the same but the 10% that’s different is REALLY different!
Good luck to you and if you drive between those cities take the coast highway for the most beautiful drive of your life. The I-5 is boring and ugly. You won’t regret it!
the perception divide keeps getting wider of this city from the “haves” vs the “have nots”. Best Place on Earth if you own your home, but absolute torture if you don’t
troll
“the perception divide keeps getting wider of this city from the “haves” vs the “have nots”. Best Place on Earth if you own your home, but absolute torture if you don’t”
not really true. it’s all about your attitude. unfortunate, too much jealousy and envies blind people that make them become whinners and bitchers.