Max Fawcett, an Edmonton journalist, writes: “I’m working on a story for an Edmonton magazine about educated/middle class people leaving Vancouver for Edmonton. Do you know anybody like this? Have you run into anyone like this in the course of your online travels?”
Any readers who can help Max with his request, please contact him at maxfawcett@gmail.com
[Max's own story about his leaving Vancouver was featured at VREAA 14 May 2010.]
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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
-
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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So they want to inflate the prices in Edmonton now? This is how they justify double the 2003 prices in Edmonton.. Everybody wants to move there:)
Edmonton, the best (extremely cold) place on earth!
Deadmonton
My friend worked on the Canada Line construction. Once the work stopped, he panicked that there will be no more work for him in Vancouver and moved to Edmonton. He made more money there but hated the place. So cold. He left Canada a year later…
Edmonton is nothing, we know people that left for three hills, AB. cited housing as main reason.
I know people who left for Calgary, Ottawa, GTA, or even London, ON and all were happy with their decisions.
Sorry we moved to Calgary, but Edmonton seems to have a better hockey team than even Vancouver right now. I know somebody who went there for law school and ended up staying.
Edmonton is a nice place, especially in the summer.
Agreed. I found the people friendly too. But they don’t plow the roads…
Fantastic city with tons of culture especially if you enjoy the indie scene. U of A is a great university and almost as cool as U of T. CJSR is in the top ten of college radio stations. The University hospital is top notch. Incredible infrastructure especially if you enjoy driving. Less American influence than Calgary so this appeals to some. Fantastic value for SFH’s and some great builders. Incredible family life and non-stop recereational activities throughout winter for the kids. Next to Saskatoon, the best summer weather in Canada. And an economy that is just ripping! Long winters like the rest of Canada. Princesses need not apply.
What I’ve noticed about Edmonton is how loyal Edmontonians –both the ‘born and bred’ as well as the new arrivals — are to their city. Its a lower-key, more blue collar city and is probably at the exact opposite of Vancouver on the pretentiousness scale. For anyone driven nuts by the smug self-satisfied and self-regarding culture of Vancouver, I can see a lot of positives to Edmonton.
But let’s not get carried away. Talking up the infrastructure in a absolutely car-dependent city? Culture? Umm…not quite. I would guess the Edmonton is a great city for people who don’t really like or ‘get’ cities. Who don’t value a lively street life, walkability, interesting and varied night life, great food at both ends of the income scale, great art — both in terms of first class museum collections and grass-roots and commercial contemporary, enough cultural profile and importance that all major and minor acts need to come through continually. If you don’t think Vancouver is much of a ‘city’ city, you’re not going to be finding it in Edmonton.
The university is, however, a first rate institution (by Canadian standards: no one will confuse the U of A with MIT), certainly one of the five best universities in the country. And I’ll always regard the Oilers as my preferred western team.
“Less American influence than Calgary so this appeals to some. Fantastic value for SFH’s and some great builders.”
Calgary is more of a Canadian interpretation of Texas. It’s sort of like performance art, but in actuality Calgary is not southern or south-western. If it was, one would be able to find better Mexican food in the city. Or good greens, corn bread, and real iced-tea.
Now I’m hungry.
Calgary had many more American settlers and much of the downtown business culture was established by US oil companies, The influence is still there to this day in terms of attitude, culture, and general style. I think Calgary is most comparable to Denver and maybe Dallas – both excellent US cities in my opinion. Edmonton to me just feels a little more Canadian – I prefer Calgary but I’ve never compared it to the US south except maybe Houston – the other corporate energy capital of North America,
The only problem is Edmonton is further away from the Rockies vs Calgary. I hear Edmonton is great in the spring and summer – has a long garden season. Agree Calgary is similar to Denver in many ways.