- Huffington Post Canada, 23 Jan 2012, headlines Vancouver’s dubious distinction of being named 2nd most unaffordable city in the world in the latest Demographia study: “Historically, Western cities have had a housing-to-income ratio of around three, the study says, meaning the median house price is typically three times the median annual household income. In Vancouver in 2011, that ratio hit 10.6; the median house cost 10.6 times the median income. Only Hong Kong was less affordable, with a ratio of 12.6.”
Most Recent Comments:
- bailinginbc on Chat Thread
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- Hymie Garshman on Taking A Break
- cash loans on South Granville SFH Example – Price Rise Of 120% In Two Years
- paydayloansyeehaw on Erroneous Theories For Falling Prices #5 – Tightening Of Mortgage Rules Caused The Crash
- payday loans on Peppy Ads – “Buying a Home Is Like A Sport. Meet Your Coach. Win The Real Estate Game.”
- Nemesis on Chat Thread
- Hymie Garshman on Taking A Break
- Nemesis on Chat Thread
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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)
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- 07. Avoiding Vancouver (375)
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- 11. Regrets about Investing in RE (417)
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- 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)
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- 29. Bubblespeak (1)
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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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Let’s say that it’s a flood of bearish MSM headlines that we have seen over the past few weeks… The day of reckoning has come it seems!
Here’s Larry’s take on the current market. His view is not bullish to say the least:
I’ve also just discovered this article: Prediction: The Canadian housing market will crash
After seeing all these news, anyone in his right mind would hold on before writing a $1 million+ check… But insanity can still prevail (comment by Reggie from Larry’s blog: “I bet the rain slowed open houses this weekend. That said, I suspect that post CNY will cause a veritable flood of bidding wars over the coming weeks, watch out for new record high prices and sales volumes!”)… we’ll see but I’m getting pretty optimistic.
it’s as if even the bulls are now asking for it end, just get it over with, it’s killing us all. got this weird flash … that moment in alien where dallas pleads with ripley to kill him
I’m torn, Demographia’s agenda gets swept in with the data. You know the new year is upon us when the same old supply side mantra rears its futile head.
That’s funny!
News flash: Vancouver was severely unaffordable 10 years ago when property prices were a fraction of what they are now.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen housing at 3x income in Vancouver. When I bought back in 2000 – in retrospect, the the low of the lowest in the last nearly-20 years – we paid 4x our household income for our home.
While certainly 10x household is unsustainable, equally unlikely is a drop in prices to 3x current household. Wouldn’t the average house price in Vancouver be 225K?
hindsight is 20/20 – what I know is that 10 years ago a SFH in Vancouver was 3x more expensive than Calgary with significantly lower salaries therefore, in my opinion, Vancouver was seriously unaffordable 10 years ago (but I suppose it’s all relative). I also found Toronto to be relatively unaffordable 10 years ago both from the perspective of buying and renting. It’s just better living for your buck in Calgary.
Congrats on passing Sydney Vancouver!
This is hilarious, the fluff piece from the weekend about how strong the Sydney market has been placed on the main page of the SMH all day. Complete with rocket ship house graphic! TO DA MOON!!! Catch it while you can:
http://smh.domain.com.au/
Its funny, I usually post bearish links about Real Estate on Facebook and Msn, and some friends ask me why I care so much about this and still disagree with the thought of real estate going down.
I replied, debt and RE is the biggest issue of our generation.
All I got in response was oh well what can you do.
Yea, my friends husband who is a realtor responded to my last Facebook post about RE & Bubble simply with “How long have you been paying your landlords mortgage?”. I was so pissed, all I could respond was never, but he’s been subsidizing my shelter costs for 4 years now.
yltn, thanks for sharing, interesting exchange.
Please clarify. Did you respond:
“never, but he’s been subsidizing my shelter costs for 4 years now.”
or
“never.” ?
Let us know.
And that’s why I don’t post Van RE bubble stuff on Facebook. My friends and family are pretty much all in and delusional. I gave up
.