“2893 AURORA RD, Capilano Highlands, North Vancouver (V971457, 5414sqft SFH, Ask price $2,988,000) is the most expensive property currently listed in the Delbrook area of North Vancouver. I’ve been tracking this area for 4 years now and have seen the general trend of decent (but overpriced) places getting snapped up at around 800K, knocked down, and 4500sqft monsters built in their place and listed for $2M plus. Its almost like the spec builders have shifted from Van West to Delbrook. These houses are nice but builder designed boringness that will be albatrosses once a return to normal prices, but I digress.
The main reason for the post is the open house comment for next week:
“More than an open house this will be a FEAST. Profeesionally catered, by one the city’s finest, you are sure to appreciate the home and the food. Bring your appetite!”
So, you are trying to sell a $3M house in suburbia by targeting cheapskates looking for free food!!! I get freshly baked cookies to appeal to walk-bys but actually advertising a free catered event???”
- yltnboomerang at VREAA 15 Sep 2012 12:16pm
What’s with the suburbia bashing? (Aside from the bubble prices?)
“There is the presumption that suburbanites are living these lives of quiet desperation and isolation, and they really hate being there. You see trotted out ideas about community being missing. And to have community, you’ve got to be in Manhattan. There are a lot of ex-Manhattanites that would challenge that theory very seriously.”
http://reason.com/archives/1998/06/01/plan-obsolescence
One thing that impresses me about the North Shore is the polite way everyone cooperates doing their perfect little zipper merge onto the Lions Gate. Where I come from, merging traffic is akin to a knife fight in a telephone booth.
I lived there for a good part of my 20s, and I can tell you that if you are trying to get somewhere in the morning and Lions Gate is backed up (happens very often) you know for sure you’re not going to make it. So, what’s the point of being rude? you are not going to get to downtown any sooner even if you are two cars ahead. It is just a one, or two, lane backed up road with no escape, no exit, no freeway, no detour, etc.
did reverse commute to northshore for couple summers … single lane causeway there and back … there was a zen element to it, first neatly getting down to single file, then carefully damping out the stop and go oscillations so you hardly ever touch brakes … but this was well before smart phones – don’t know if that has changed anything
I heard a story about a cab driver who got into a confrontation with a West Vancouverite while he was attempting to “zipper” merge from the North Vancouver side of the Lion’s Gate Bridge Southbound. He rolled down the window and saw some Matron in a Mercedes shaking her fist and yelling at him “Don’t you know it’s TWO cars from West Van for every OINE car from North Van!”
Many suburbs command premiums over inner cities. Hardly “suburbia”. But then this house isn’t really geared towards the typical suburbanite.
manhattanites in suburbia … http://tinyurl.com/8qy28vp … pffft!
North Van is now a Suburbia?
is this a set and spike?
Edgemont village area in North Van earlier this year saw every reasonable lot snapped up for >$1 million within days and often within hours. I’m talking about dozens of these within a 4 or 5 months period mainly purchased by builders. I remember thinking that fall /winter of this year would be amusing as all of these > $2.5 million homes hit what I suspected would be a weak market at roughly the same time.
The open was Tuesday 10:00 – 1:00, a classic broker’s open. He wasn’t trying to target cheapskate buyers, he was targeting cheapskate agents whose buyer clients might not be. With commissions down 40%, I’d say free food makes a pretty good door opener.
Ahem, North Van is a suburb of Van proper so it is suburbia. I have nothing against suburbs having grown up in the Vancouver suburb of North Van and would buy in Edgemont (been monitoring 4 years) as it is the least suburban of North Van IMO as it is one of few places where you can have a private SFH yet still walk to the village for shopping as I personally am not a fan of suburbs where you have to hop in a car to get anything or go anywhere.
I have had my eye on the North Shore for a while, as well. It is the best suburb of Vancouver, in my view, because of its proximity and geography.
The prices jumped a good 15% (or more) in Edgemont and Upper Delbrook in the early part of 2011. I remember a listing on the west side of Delbrook where it sold for $250,000 above asking (it was listed at assessed value).
My personal experience is that people who sold to HAM in West Van, and cashed out with huge gains, started migrating east to Edgemont and view properties in Upper Delbrook, Montroyal and other western parts of North Van District (including Highland). It is evident that east of Delbrook are cheaper than west side of the street.
So, if you drive up Delbrook the listings on the right hand side are a notch cheaper than the listings on the left hand side of the street. Real estate is all about location, but this one is artificially influenced by eastward migration of West Vancouverites. Otherwise the school zone and everything else is the same.
A list of suburbs where you can walk to shopping:
- North Burnaby
- Parts of New West
- Port Moody
- Steveston (nice because it’s flat so you can bike in short period)
Alternatively parts of Vancouver are more suburban than the suburbs, at least in terms of transit convenience or proximity to shopping.
Not that I know much about it.
SFH zones are suburban in nature, regardless of location. Doesn’t “urban” imply density?
Ha, perhaps I should be calling it a burough to really piss everyone off
“News from the North Shore” West Vancouver just hit the all time record for single family home list count! 580 of them. Previous record 577 in 1998.
If you ever watch those HGTV reality shows like Million $ Listings, etc, for a million dollar listing in NY, LA, etc, it is pretty standard to have champagn, wine, cheese platter, sushi platter, or similar higher end catering during open houses for brokers/agents, and buyers. There, $1 or $2 million dollar listings are treated like a big deal still. In Vancouver, a $2 million dollar listing is pretty much the same as a $150K listing in US.