Excerpts from ‘Shipping containers to be Vancouver housing’, CBC 5 Apr 2011 –
“Vancouver will soon see a new type of social housing for disadvantaged women — an apartment complex made out of shipping containers.
The structure — the first of its kind in Canada — will occupy a currently empty lot at Jackson Avenue and Alexander Street in the Downtown Eastside.
Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang supports the project, as long as the units are liveable. “This is an issue I’ve been very concerned about [is] liveability. I mean, as soon as you say the word ‘container,’ people think you’re just warehousing people.”
Despite the concept, residents won’t feel boxed in, said project supervisor James Weldon. [haha -ed.]
Commenters point out that similar conversions have been done for $10K per unit, and surmise that the $85K must include land value. But perhaps not. Is the city selling or leasing the land on which they are built?
A quick search for ‘$85K, Florida’ came up with this, the first RE hit, we’re sure there are hundreds of other examples:
12 Sep 2010: 1216 Oregon St, Orlando, FL 3280, $85K
Yes, a short sale/foreclosure, but, you get the idea.
We in Vancouver are so brainwashed by $1M, $1.5M, $3M handles on RE that $85K for a 320sqft pre-fab unit in the DTES starts sounding like a deal.
Everything in Vancouver and vicinity is screamingly overvalued. – vreaa
Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive 
So i can get one of these for $1,000 down, right?
and the bank will cover my downpayment witha cheap LoC!
Imma gonna buy me some REAL ESTATE, bitchez!
/sarc
seriously though, i have a friend in logistics in HK and i recall him telling me that a used shipping container only costs about $2k-3k.
several thousand of these end up on the bottom of the ocean every year – we should tell Gregor to set up a salvage operation!
“$1500 / 1br – The Village at False Creek, where all the cool people live (False Creek)”
“569sf living plus 86sf balcony” ie shoe-box
“Secure underground parking available for $80/month”
What can I say? …. lol!
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/apa/2309416836.html
$1500 for that? They’re dreaming in technicolor …
There is no grease to squeeze here. Hope it works out for those women.
Orlando is broken. You are welcome to it:
“It is crime, traffic, poverty, overcrowding, no green areas, too built up, homelessness, and high cost of living. The crime is #1 problem to be, it’s terrible. Then it gets depressing to see tractors taking down every single small wooded area you see to build apts or condos.
It is even hard to find a place to RENT these days (talking about this today during lunch), even if you can afford to shill out the $1,500/mo for somewhere to live and deal with noisy neighbors.
It is a hassle to live here, I honestly cannot see why anyone would KNOWINGLY move down here with all these problems. Seems masochistic to me.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/orlando/41592-does-anyone-like-living-orlando-2.html
Some of those complaints are about the rate of development and were made in 2007: I think finding a place to rent – or buy, as vreaa has shown – is less difficult now. Of course, I agree that bubbles can cause extraordinarily bad planning decisions, and tear down the green-space that makes a city livable.
Man.
Don’t compare other places with Vancouver. If you think other places are better (from whatever the perspective), then move.
Some places are cheaper, some places are more expensive.
if you want to compare, compare Shanghai and here. You will see the property prices in Vancouver are relatively good deal.
I am getting sick of the whiners.
can i sleep on your couch?
With due respect to the dead (RIP), whole houses are heading up our shores along the path of North Pacific Gyre.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1374520/Cars-houses-severed-feet-shoes-The-vast-field-debris-Japan-earthquake-tsunami-thats-floating-U-S-West-Coast.html