“Dear Vancouver,
Happy new year!
I’ve lived here most of my life, I’m 32, married now and about the right age to buy a home and start a family.
My wife and I have been saving up for a nice 2 bedroom apartment for several years. We’ve looked at the prices and it seems too risky in terms of ending up “house poor”. We’ve been waiting and waiting for anything to change in Vancouver, but nothing has happened!
At the current state of things, after doing some calculations we envisioned a situation where we would be both forced to work (dual income) and drop our future children into daycare in order to make ends meet. Most likely we will make the payments just fine but without any retirement savings no extras for vacation, etc. Vancouver, this sounds pretty stressful to us.
So after much deliberation, we decided to leave you and move to Texas where my salary would be double and our living expenses would be less than half.
In Texas we would be able to afford a large home and still save plenty for vacation/retirement/etc and this is on only one income!!
My commute is only a 5 minute drive, the people are so friendly, it feels like the same level of friendliness as being at church everywhere I go.
The weather is great, I don’t see any junkies, at worst there is a homeless person with a sign by the highway asking for change.
I thank you Vancouver for your past accomplishments, your scenery, your skytrain lines and abundance of sushi restaurants.
Unfortunately at this time I will not be needing your services and wish you farewell.
Sincerely,
A former Vancouver resident (for more than 28 years!)”
- from formervancouverresident at vancouvercondo.info 1 Jan 2012 10:22am
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- 01. He Said, She Said (247)
- 02. Profiting from the Boom (441)
- 03. Changed my Life (103)
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- 05. Where do Buyers get the money? (958)
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- 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)
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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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@formervancouverresident
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!
Gee, put it like that and maybe this isn’t the Best Place On Earth after all. Especially the friendly people part, forgot what that was like a LONG time ago here in the BPOE. Hey former Vancouver resident, are you guys hiring?
i don’t know about Texas, given their obsession about guns and xenophobia (eg. illegal Mexican immigrants), as a non, red blooded, white guy, I would be hestitant to move there.
There is significant variance across the state. It is possible to find enclaves of staunch liberality in most parts of the US, I’d say in many ways more extreme than is the case in Canada.
Austin.
music, food, art, sun and south by southwest.
if you go looking for that, i’m sure you’ll find some but it’s not what you think – perspective probably derived from cdn msm feed. i’ve read more xenophobia (about ham) on this blog than i’ve encountered 15 yrs living in us.
^ What that says.
You should honestly take a look at Houston. Might change your perspective quite a bit.
I thought Texas was great for the first few months too. 10 years in Houston later, I’m still trying to find a way out (I started after the 1st year). Cheap living and bigger paychecks are addictive. Just make sure that you and your spouse have the same expectations.
and Austin.
It’s hard not to love Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin. Not that Houston doesn’t have a lot to offer as well. Sure makes Vancouver feel like a small town though.
As a person of east asian descent with plenty of family members living in and around the Houston area you should pull off your stereotype/bigot glasses and try visiting it once before you draw your conclusions. You’d be surprised at how much more diverse and tolerant Texas can be on multiple levels compared with the Great White North.
Space889 – Was in Austin last summer and saw as many South Asian and Asian students on campus at the University of Texas as I did Caucasian students. Texans ARE very friendly in my experience and yes, like chubster, I’ve encountered more xenophobia here than I did there.
chubster is also in my opinion correct that the MSM here also sometimes paint a darker picture of the usa in general, in all areas, than is warranted.
But DO beware of the giant flying cockroaches. Apparently Texans get used to them, but I found it hard.
Yes, my comment is 100% based on MSM and movies, as I have as most of you gather never been to Texas. Most people I met from US are very friendly. However, the racial thing in the south we keep hearing about, and all the anti-immigrant messages we hear in the news/GOP primaries, movies (eg. Machete), etc aren’t very helpful.
Also the gun law is what worries me most there as I think you can carry concealed weapons in Texas? Or just even carry a gun around in plain sight?
Forgot about the flying cockroaches.
In the south they call them waterbugs. Makes everybody feel better.
The comments here are interesting. As is the article, of course.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/vancouver-among-worlds-least-affordable-housing-markets/article2311279/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2311279
More bubble talk on the MSM:
Connect the housing bubble dots: There could be trouble on CMHC’s horizon
A refreshing read for everyone…
I should have copied the conclusion of that article as well: