“I lived in Kits for many years and it was very hard to let go of the dream of staying in Vancouver as I got older. I think at some point the people who are leveraging their futures in debt to stay there need to think long and hard about it. Vancouver is wonderful, but so is having a back yard for your kids, a savings and retirement account, and the ability to splurge (without debt) on trips, fancy shoes, restaurants and anything else you can think of that makes life enjoyable for you and your family.
It was hard to let go of Vancouver but now that I have kids I realize the things I enjoyed doing in the city would be nearly impossible with young kids anyway. My husband and I get the grandparents to babysit once in a while for the night and we spend a night in the city in a fancy hotel. I honestly gain more enjoyment from Vancouver that way than I ever did living here because I know I have to soak it all in!
I thought I’d be devastated to leave but it’s really been fine. I view Vancouver now as a place for only the very wealthy or the very young who are OK to live in 500 sqf.
FWIW, Fort Langley is an awesome place to live too! It really doesn’t have to be all or nothing where Vancouver is concerned.”
- Em at thethirtiesgrind.com 29 May 2012 12:25pm
Most Recent Comments:
- ling on ‘Doomed’? – “Home prices in Canada are now double what they were in the 1970s in real terms. Historically, over the very long term, real home prices tend to be flat.”
- Toby on “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
- Nemesis on ‘Doomed’? – “Home prices in Canada are now double what they were in the 1970s in real terms. Historically, over the very long term, real home prices tend to be flat.”
- Raspberry ketone on Commit Crime To Buy A House
- Nemesis on “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
- You're sore, not hurt. on ‘Doomed’? – “Home prices in Canada are now double what they were in the 1970s in real terms. Historically, over the very long term, real home prices tend to be flat.”
- Ralph Cramdown on “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
- Farmer on “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
- kabloona on “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
- Brian on “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
- Nemesis on “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
- Burnabonian on “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
Type of Anecdote
- 01. He Said, She Said (247)
- 02. Profiting from the Boom (442)
- 03. Changed my Life (103)
- 04. Changed my Career (38)
- 05. Where do Buyers get the money? (962)
- 06. Held my Nose and Leapt (96)
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- 08. Overextended Buyers (1190)
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- 10. Demoralized Renters? (366)
- 11. Regrets about Investing in RE (417)
- 12. Effects of Development (274)
- 13. 2010 Olympics Related (74)
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- 15. Misallocation of Resources (959)
- 16. Missed The Boat? (236)
- 17. The Froogle Scott Chronicles (27)
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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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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
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- 12 vancouver (un)real estate
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- 14 Landlord Rescue
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- 17 Hoodsurf [retired Jun 2011]
- 18 World Housing Bubble
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- 20 North American Economics
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Latest Anecdotes:
- ‘Doomed’? – “Home prices in Canada are now double what they were in the 1970s in real terms. Historically, over the very long term, real home prices tend to be flat.”
- “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
- “Let’s remember how we got here” – Looser and Looser CMHC Limits
- Don’t Worry, I’m Sure Somebody Will Sort This All Out – “Policymakers now know better and will be a lot more proactive in preventing a collapse.”
- “Things have changed, we are not doing that type of mortgage. We are not interested at all.”
- “We are noticing our target type of housing in price decline, albeit slow, as our money increases in value, slowly as well but outpacing housing.”
- Renter Buys In West Van – “For a few hundred more per month, you could own the place. Which is what I will be doing as my offer for a place down the street has been accepted. There is some value in staying in one place.”
- A Bed in the Bathroom, Why Not? [Let Us Count The Reasons...]
- “My husband and kids are pretty happy in our rental house within cycling distance of work that we could never have afforded otherwise. We’re doin’ pretty dang well, thank you, for median income earners in this expensive city.”
- “I Wish Them Bad Luck.” – Jim Flaherty, on those who wish to profit from Canadian RE price drops
- “We asked why he doesn’t just rent the whole house. He said he can’t, it wouldn’t cover his mortgage – he’ll get more to rent it out as two suites. These new landlords are hilarious, thinking that rent will cover their mortgage!”
- “My neighbours, in their late 60s, just put their house on the market. They had said they would die in that house, but now they are worried that with the housing market going south they may be losing a lot of equity and they better sell now before it gets worse.”
- 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.”
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I rent in a townhouse complex and I have a backyard for my kids to play in. I just have to share it with a bunch of other people. Which as it turns out is great, there are always other kids for my daughter to play with and there is a huge playground that I couldn’t afford to build myself. Once you remove the artificial requirements like “must own” “must live in this postal code or that” you find a remarkable number of options all around the GVR.
We lived in a townhouse prior to moving to Fort Langley. We absolutely couldn’t stand the noise on the other side of the shared wall and the yard situation was not meeting our needs with active kids and a dog. We have 12,000 sqf of land now and it’s awesome, so really, to each their own! We often have people over to our place for playdates so not having anyone to play with in a backyard is a non issue.
I don’t think Fort Langley will be saved from a bubble in Vancouver. I actually see the outlying suburbs hit hard as there will be a wealth of SFH available for sale with less interest from buyers. Am I wrong in my perception of what will happen?
FYI – I commute via carpool from Van to the burbs for work. Easy commute against the flow. I look at traffic lines heading into Van stretching upwards of 2 – 5 kms and think “is it really worth that commute for a backyard?”
To each their own. Thank you for the chance to participate.
I don’t think you’re wrong at all. In particular about Ft Langley – it’s one of our nicer mini-suburbs (too rainy for me though), so it’ll hold some value just because it’s pretty. But for sure if the stuff in the middle loses value (which it will, and already is), the stuff in the outskirts with the long commute will suffer accordingly.
You live in Vancouver but commute to the “burbs”? Did you ever think that maybe Vancouver is becoming the suburb? Have you looked at where the job growth is?
Renters Revenge, you pose a good question. The second economic hub for the Region is downtown Surrey based on Metro Vancouver’s 40 year plan. I think there are a lot of conditions that will need to happen to see that reality, including improved transit to areas south of the fraser.
Also, job growth is one thing, career growth is another. I am not sure that the big players in business are completely ready to base headquarters in Vancouver’s burbs.
Vancouver will never be the suburb by the way. The greater Vancouver Metro region (Surrey, Langley, Coquitlam, Poco, RidgeMeadows) is too stretched out to provide any sense of community that would see it become the namesake for the region ahead of Vancouver.
Good chat.
FWIW, I should add both my husband and I work from home and are in stable professions so we don’t have to worry about commuting. To be honest, I don’t know how people manage the long commutes to Vancouver if they live in the suburbs. We are lucky and we know it.
Well, it sounds like you are in a good spot to ride anything out and enjoy life. Hope that Fort Langley continues to be a great home for you!
I don’t know how anyone can compare Kits to a burb like Ft Langley. It’s way way overrated in my opinion
It definitely is.
Well said.