“I recently left Vancouver with my family, we sold our house (Feb 2012) and moved to the island. We were in Vancouver for 11 years and both our kids were born there. We traded our large mortgage on our old house (we did a ton of work on it but it still needed about a 200k reno on it) for a brand new house with a mortgage that will be paid off in one year (it also has a rental suite). You would not believe the amount of stress that has been removed from our life. There is no more stress as what would happen if one of us lost our job or don’t make bonus one year. My wife and I will be 42 and mortgage free, time to travel with our kids, save for retirement and RESP’s. If we had stayed in Vancouver we would have had a mortgage for 20 more years, pouring all our extra money and time into our house just so that we can live in Vancouver? Its just not worth having that debt hanging over our head for the next 20 years just to live in Vancouver, Vancouver isn’t that great. I don’t get why someone who has 1 million to 2 million in equity (paper equity???) would not sell and leave Vancouver. I understand for some people its not possible, but take a look around the rest of the world, real estate does not always go up, and no its not different in Vancouver. People work their whole lives and don’t make that kind of money especially after tax. You could put that amount of money in a diversified portfolio of dividend stocks and make $50,000 a year in income or more. Take the money and run… run away and live a life with less stress, more travel, discretionary income and a more secure future. Just my two cents worth, but its coming from someone who has done it and has never been happier. If one day I begin to miss what Vancouver has to offer I will go over for a weekend and stay at the Pan Pacific…guess what I can afford it now!!!”
– ‘debt free = stress free’ at VREAA 5 Jun 2012 9:59am
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Type of Anecdote
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- 02. Profiting from the Boom (446)
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- 05. Where do Buyers get the money? (1,111)
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- 14. Social Effects of the Boom (1,266)
- 15. Misallocation of Resources (967)
- 16. Missed The Boat? (237)
- 17. The Froogle Scott Chronicles (27)
- 18. Spot The Speculator (174)
- 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 (45)
- 23. Jumping The Shark (1)
- 24. Policies On Housing (11)
- 25. Epigrams For The Bubble (1)
- 26. Premature Calls Of "Bottom" (3)
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- 28. Erroneous Causation Theories For Falling Prices (7)
- 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
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- 14 Landlord Rescue
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Latest Anecdotes:
- “I’m surprised that everyone else is so surprised to hear anyone talk about a housing bubble” – “Canadian RE 2021 worse than U.S. bubble at 2006 peak” – David Rosenburg
- “Always the Right Time to Buy!” – Cheap Rope For Vancouver RE Buyers
- Mortgage Squeeze Anecdotes – “Two days ago my mortgage holder called and told me that, after 22 years, they would not renew my mortgage.”
- Wow! – CMHC CEO Evan Siddall Points To Unsustainable Debt & Calls For 18% Drop In Housing Prices – [which of course would mean a lot more off]
- Prediction: Vancouver RE Prices Will Not Crash… Unless They Crash
- Pre-Existing Disease – COVID Economic Stress Uncovers Longstanding Vulnerability in Vancouver RE Market
- COVID-19 the Pin for the Highly Debt-Leveraged Vancouver RE Bubble?
- Vancouver Sun Headline – ‘Five more Metro Vancouver homeowners hosed in a falling market’
- Vancouver RE Prices – Where is the Support?
- Money Laundering & Vancouver Home Prices
- “Psychologically, They’re Ill-Prepared” – “Canadian Chaos Looms”
- Keeping Up With Other Bubbles – Australia Suddenly Not Running Out Of Land Anymore – “Aussie House Prices Could Halve”
- Watershed? or Dam-Collapsing? – Mainstream Media Quoting Vancouver RE Bear-Tweets, and Predicting Shrinking Realtor Numbers – “What they’re used to is not what real estate is typically like.”
- “Within artistic communities in Vancouver it’s hard to spend more than 15 minutes at a social gathering without talking about the cost of rent or knowing of someone who is being evicted.”
- Macleans Wakes Up – ‘This is how Canada’s housing correction begins’ – “We’re not ready for what happens next”
- Vancouver Detached – Sales Down, Prices Down
- Bloomberg Calls Vancouver ‘The City That Had Too Much Money’
- “Our family loves Vancouver, but we’re leaving because the struggle to live here is simply too hard”
- Tendency Towards Corruption Is Inevitable – How Do We Minimize Its Existence?
- Hard Earned Home Savings? Hardly.
- “You know your real estate is in bad shape when there is a game app that displays Vancouver’s Science World and teaches you how to be a money hungry real estate developer.”
- “It’s sinking in that Vancouver is sinking” – “Westside prices have fallen 17% from 2016 & 11% this year; sales volumes down by 80%; 3 years worth of >$3 Million inventory”
- The Carrion Have The Carcass – “I’ve lived in Vancouver since 1968; my wife was born here; we are about to leave; this town has priced us out. All that is left are the investors and the very rich visitors.”
- All Time High, And Climbing… $251 Billion Personal Debt Borrowed Against Canadian Homes
- “I asked a group of young people how many of them thought they’d be in Vancouver in two years, and 17 out of 18 said that they would be moving.” – Mayoral Candidate Shauna Sylvester
- Off-The-Charts Unaffordable – Greater Vancouver Price-To-Income Ratio 28 (average home price: $1,071,800, median one-person income: $38,164)
- Conflicts of Interest – BC MLAs Heavily Invested In RE Making Laws About RE
- File Under Tags: ‘Tolerant Vancouver Renter’ and ‘YouGottaBeKiddinMe’
- Vancouver “an international housing-affordability basket case” with “RE bubble risk the worst in the world” – Maclean’s
- Vancouver Economy Over-Dependent On Debt Spending
- Vancouver City Councillors Wake Up To ‘Fierce Speculative Demand’ – “There is significant evidence speculative investment has the biggest impact on housing costs in the city.”
- The Dance Around Foreign Ownership of Vancouver RE
- Information From Outside The Vancouver RE Bubble – U.S. Senator Lives In (don’t laugh) $500K Home
- “The Position Remains Unfilled”
- Jessica Barrett – ‘I Left Vancouver Because Vancouver Left Me’ – “Like Living On An Abandoned Film Set.”
- “I’ve thought since early 2010 that Vancouver housing was in a bubble, and have refused to buy a house for this reason. I’ve felt that the risk of mean-reversion was far higher than the risk of missing the upside.”
- “It is very difficult to live here.”
- “We want young people to buy Real Estate.” – Vancouver’s Mayor
- “Vancouver RE Balloon Pricked; Median Price Detached Home Down >$500,000 to $1.7 million; Prices Need To Be Slashed”
- Detached Price Trend Remains Up, For Now. Speculators Hold Their Breath?
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Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive 
“People work their whole lives and don’t make that kind of money…”
But they’re *paying* that kind of money, somehow.
Great anecdote. I think if RE doesn’t crash we will be out of here in ten years (that’s my timeline due to family reasons which I won’t get into here). We’ll go to the interior where I grew up, and will likely also be mortgage free by 50.
I hope you factored rent into your retirement costs.
They will be mortgage free in one year. Why would they need to rent in retirement?
We sold this last December. Have not moved out of Vancouver, yet. Will stick around for a couple years and see what happens. We lucked out and walked away with just shy of 2m free and clear in the seven years we owned on the west side. I thought we were being punked.
We sold last year in Kits, making a huge profit. Happily renting in a bigger, better house now. Watching the market and waiting for things to calm down so if the time comes, we can make a move on another house on the west side. But I won’t do it until I see a serious correction in housing prices. I still can’t believe we sold our house for what we did! (nearly triple what I bought it for in 2006) I was born in this city, and agree it’s an amazing place. But one trip to New York, London, Paris, etc and you’ll see what a real world class city is.
Vancouver IS a fantastic city, but it’s smallish and the weather stinks. We all get excited when the sun comes out and it warms up – when it does – Vancovuer is the most beautiful city in the world. But those amazing days are in the minority (and I know – I’ve lived here all my life)
If you are the sort that spends a LOT of time on the water, skiing local hills and enjoying the natural surroundings, and can afford it – it’s the perfect place. But most people I know only do those things occaisionally, and stress out about their daily existence of bills, mortgage, taxes and general costs of living. You can’t spend every weekend at whistler when you’re worried about paying all you bills.
I cannot agree more with the amount of stress relief you get by having no debt, a pile of money in the bank and the freedom to make life changes if needed/desired.
Good for you Debt Free – I’m totally agree.
But you left the next 5 years’ 200% increase on the table or so I keep hearing from the Vancouver RE bulls!
Apparently, buying RE is the one of only a few ways to make a decent living in that city. Now that even HAM can’t afford the city, I can’t imagine how bad the economy will get there.
What’s wrong with you people?!? STAY INVESTED LOL
A bit off topic but there is a terrific write up on the Canadian RE bubble on Dr Housing Bubble blog that is definitely worth reading:
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/canadian-housing-prices-canada-housing-real-estate-bubblereach-apex-set-for-deep-fall-foreign-money-speculation-housing-debt/#comment-205138
The article pulls no punches and paints a pretty grim picture for Canada in the not so distant future. What I found particularly interesting, and something that has received little or no attention on Canadian blog sites (as far as I know), is the buying and selling of “rights” to Canadian properties by (mostly?) foreigners. This process, if true, takes RE speculation to a whole new level, as it appears to bypasses the whole RE transaction process involving agent fees and property transfer taxes, etc. I’m not sure who gets left holding the bag when the market tanks but it would not surprise me if it were the taxpayer, thanks to lax and/or poorly regulated gov’t policy.
That is mostly from the Dianne Francis piece in the national post. Presales are trading rights, who knows what the regulation is.