“I know three different couples who have bought detached SFH in the past few WEEKS – two moving up following recent condo sales and one thanks to down payment from parents. Two out of three settled for junk simply to “make the numbers work.”. All are over-extended. Their excitement at being new home owners seems tempered by the stress of realizing what they’ve all just taken on, not to mention the timing, just prior to the new tightening rules which are sure to further soften prices.”
- harden at VREAA 23 Jun 2012 1:45pm
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- 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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People are responsible for their own decisions. But I also feel that the MSM media, real-estate-back-pocket journalists should be partly culpable.
They (read “mainly Global”) have given such a false impression of things with so much pro-industry spin that even experienced folks have been taken in… let alone young couples.
This is going to be quite a mess. It’s going to be hard to say “I told you so.” in fact, those words will likely not leave my mouth as it will be kicking while they’re down.
I blame rich immigrants and foreigners. These families never had a fighting chance.
Yes, they are screwed now.
That’s one thing I don’t understand about Vancouver. People are buying houses for up to a million dollars, and often the houses are garbage-old, falling apart, need a lot of work etc. My significant other remembers a decade ago when these same houses were $250k-$300k, and nobody wanted them. And when a relative or someone bought one, everyone wondered why they bothered buying such a piece of junk for such an ridiculous price. Now everyone wants these houses, and now they are $800k instead of $300k, and guess what? They’re still junk, just more overpriced than ever. No thank you!
Those junk houses looked like fairy-tale castles while they were financial instruments rising in price every year (bought with leverage). The moment prices turn, they will go back to looking like “pieces of junk”. Seriously.
Same reason why women spend $100 on Lululemon yoga pants, when all they are is glorified sweat pants with a reflective logo… There’s a presumption high price = high desirability.
Psychology. People are desensitized to high prices. Two of my acquaintances have recently bought 2br condos for $600k+ with 10% – 15% down-payments from their parents. Both told me that $600k for a condo is not that much. Both are convinced they got a great deal.
And both are going to be financially ruined for decades. Damn fools.
How does a child learn not to touch the hot stove?
You got me there, Bubbly. Is the answer to touch a hot stove? I kind of prefer to learn from others mistakes first before trying it myself. Especially when they are this huge. Being a pedestrian on the real estate superhighway seems much safer than driving lately.
Junk detached SFH (often bungalos) are usually the older houses that are often located on the bigger lots in the area. So they are bought for the land value, with the plan for the houses to be demolished – now or in the future.
Living in different parts of the world I can easily say that the Vancouver housing market is beyond imagination. No, I am not talking about over inflated prices, I am talking about how neglected, worn and dirty most homes are.
Agree with the “neglected, worn and dirty most homes are”. The houses that are bought for a tear down are usually rented out now since the market is uncertain and the small scale developers are unsure if it is a right time to start the demolishion, So they rent them out instead. The houses are getting divided into the few rental suites – not registered of course – and rented out to the international students and the recent immigrants…and the conditions are horrible there! And even the homes that are occupied by their owners – older local couples – are in a horrible condition as their income does not allow them to renovate. The newer mansions that were build recently are in the horrible conditions too as the building wowk quality is very poor lately when everyone was hired right away without any qualification. Few years old home looks worse than the 20 years old one.