$598,000: 3023 E 1ST AV Vancouver
$669,900: 5638 ABERDEEN ST Vancouver.
$638,000: 4848 KILLARNEY ST Vancouver.
– from the ’20 Vancouver homes at rock-bottom prices’, Vancouver Sun, 14 Nov 2012[hat-tip JoeQ, who adds “Given the house quality to price ratio in these photos, methinks we are quite far from “rock bottom”. (We’d agree. Prices have barely commenced their fall. -ed.)]
Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive 
House on east 1st my offer 325.000
Noisy traffic all day. Looks like a tare down.
$325K for that POS? really?
$200K is more like it… You’ll be surprised how deep the hole was once we reach the bottom.
“RockBottom!”, meet “DirtCheap”! or so says the Sun’s web banner/sidebar enticement to review this startling collection of insipidly illustrated, overpriced grotesqueries: “OnLineNow! 20 DirtCheap VancouverHomes!”…
Alas, there be other RE AdvertorialPufferies masquerading as ‘content’ in today’s OnLine Sun… On the BrighterSide though… we do get a GobSmackinglyGood Quote O’TheDay!….
“The market is really slow and we’ve been trying to come up with a way to get more attention.” – Jordan McNab, Realtor™
[VancouverSun] – Realtors break out drinks, limo in crawling real estate market – As sales slow, real estate agents get creative in attempt to kickstart activity
…”The Canadian Real Estate Association said on Thursday that both the dollar volume of sales and the number of sales in Vancouver in October were down more than 16 per cent from October 2011, while the average price dropped 2.5 per cent. “The market is dead right now, so we’ve got to do something. Buyers are really hesitant,” Macnab said. “We’re trying to generate some traffic by thinking outside of the box.”….
http://tinyurl.com/d2a5yyd
[NoteToEd: If I were a chauffeur or caterer approached by “CribCrawl” I would so insist on a 100%UpFront.]
Thanks. Desperate, already.
As a market begins to wring out the excess, those on the margins get wrung out first?
I like the analogy of wringing excess water from a towel. You begin to twist the towel, and a lot of water comes out easily, because the towel is saturated. I think of that as the margins. Just a small amount of twisting sheds the late-comers, the opportunists, the incompetent, the lazy, those who aren’t well established with a broad-based and loyal clientele they’ve built up through years of hard work and honest dealing. Could be realtors, or housebuilders, trades of various kinds, or people in other lines of business who have been making a lot of hay, easily, while the sun has been shining, brightly.
As you continue to twist, more water comes out, but less easily. If you really twist hard, you get a lot of water out, but no matter how hard you twist, there is always some water left. That would be the core of an industry. The legitimate practitioners who can survive the twisting because they are, in fact, legitimate.
Nice analogy, Froogle.
In other types of markets, people talk of ‘strong hands’ and ‘weak hands’ holding the relevant assets. Also a useful analogy.
A house that is hardly liveable for 10x the average family income? Sounds like prices can’t possibly go any lower…
>A house that is hardly liveable for 10x the average family income? Sounds like prices can’t possibly go any lower…
Ha! I was thinking that I wouldn’t even consider paying more than $150K for any of those properties as simple teardowns and even then I’d still feel like I was getting kicked in the ‘nads over that price.
A tear-down for $600K? And the VanSun calls these rock-bottom? Make sure the author is not working for the RE Board.
Vancouver character homes. Beautiful aren’t they? AKA POS before the boom. Agree?
Most houses in the Lower Mainland end up being algae-encrusted eyesores in no time flat anyhow. I know of very few “character homes” in Vancouver or the surrounding areas.
They only end up eyesores if they’re built from moisture absorbing materials that quickly approximate in-vitro culture media… unfortunately, this means the vast majority.
PS: In the long run, we’d say the challenges of decent, climate appropriate construction is perhaps even a larger challenge for Vancouver than the bubble. If you want an example of herd behaviour, look no further than what people consider the norm for building construction (both quality and materials). We don’t care what the ‘experts’ say about well constructed blah-blah-blah… wooden boards and drywall in the rain can’t possibly add up to good quality, lasting buildings. The idea of buildings needing to be knocked down every 25 or 40 or 60 years is complete BS.
More mortar, brick, metal, glass, concrete. More attention to quality design and decent construction (this will be possible once prices deflate).
And those are houses in undesirable neighborhoods. The same quality in a nice neighborhood on a small lot is asking $1.5 M plus!
I guess when ppl live in a bubble for longer periods of time, they become more brainwashed that these prices are not artificial
LOL, rock bottom? Step away from the crackpipe, VanSun.
Let’s not forget, the value is all in the dirt.
Good point! People forget, it’s not the sticks, it’s the dirt. Focusing on the wrong thing with these pics of run down houses. Those houses are most likely not worth anything. I would guess that if you offered to remove those buildings the owners would let you take them for free. You might as well show a picture of a vacant lot.
A vacant lot would be worth more — you’d save the cost and hassle of a demolition.
Except its even overvalued as dirt. 6-7 years ago those prices would easily have got you something west of Main. What’s changed in the economic fundamentals?
Yes, these are all tear-down land-value properties.
But still ridiculous that
1. the Sun touts them as ‘homes’, and
2. the land is priced this high. (Another 50%- to 66%-off by the trough).
I hate to be picky, but trough means that eventually they will start to rise again…
They should be priced well below $200,000 (probably closer to 150), in a sane market, even accounting for inflation. And, that is assuming that the houses are in decent, liveable condition, in a good neighbourhood and within walking distance of all necessary amenities.
Not their finest moment. Show a bunch of land-value-only properties (I’m assuming. No offence intended, anyone)
Don’t they have any idea how that looks from virtually anywhere else in the world?
“Not their finest moment.”
Had a good chuckle at this turn of phrase.
[NoteToEd: They sure don’t write ’em like that anymore…]
[JustAnAfterthought, ED… One day… perhaps… When they’re sifting through the BubbleCarnage… WeHumbleBloggers (Cassandras?) will be similarly eulogized…???]
Froogle, I like your analogy. The only way to get rid of the legitimate pracitioners is if the towel is “hung out to dry”
Haha,
Like this blog for comments like Froogle’s and bailinginbc’s.
Me too.
Rock bottom journalistic quality.
Rock bottom housing quality for the price.
Puke
My wife was looking through some magazine this morning that had a bunch of beautiful Southern California homes along with their prices and she said “This is crazy, $950K for this awesome place with a huge pool and beautiful home”. I said “No, what’s crazy is $950K gets you a crappy home in bad neighbourhood in East Vancouver. $950K for that home in California is called normal”
It’s amazing how desensitized we get to the insanity of the prices here.
Agree, observer and M.
The desensitization started many years ago. Folks would take walks in their neighbourhood, “that sold for 600 thousand dollars”, then “that sold for 800K”, then “that sold for 1.4”, pretty soon the numbers mean nothing.
—
BTW, I wouldn’t bet on this (and no need to), but even that SoCal property may still drop another 20% before the whole global RE bust is said and done.
Beyond insulting. Most of these homes look like they should be condemned; the others are on or beside major thoroughfares. All are far beyond comfortable reach of the average family.
People on the blogs used to blame HGTV a lot for brainwashing people into buying RE and Condo and such. But seriously, Vancouver could really use a good dose of HGTV, especially those House Hunters, House Hunter Intl, Million Dollar House Hunters, Income Properties, Holmes Inspection, etc. Those shows would really pour some cold realty on Vancouver RE prices….
Vancouver Sun has no concept of valuation… after all, these are the dipsticks who are trying to get readers to shell out 8 dollars a month for online access to their journalistic gruel.
Bet the last house was a grow op….
probably the first one as well…
Look at the covered windows…
Times are hard when you have to sell something that’s profitable…
It’s Time for a couple of good stiff shots now….
Just as a comment…
I owe rev can.(CRA) about $4 thous. Not a big deal…
I found out they were contacting…
… and they were pretending to be a consenting party, with interest in my potential real estate sale… and that I had OKed them calling…
… and then started asking Private information from them.
… Who my lawyer(s) were,
… who the buyers lawyers were,
… the sale amount, my social insurance number, who I was working for, how much money I had, my financial status, If I would I lie about my financial status, who my real estate agent was, who did I sell to… etc, etc, etc,
and all without, and avoiding revealing that they were from revenue canada (CRA)
… and again claiming that I had consented to their questioning which I had absolutely not…
Heads up folks…
All the connecting calls she(CRA) made took less than 1 hour and 10 minutes.
This is a formula she used…. at hand data access…
if I did not know all these people, and I deal with them personally I would not have known about this…
Where in hell did she come up with all those contact numbers in 1 hour and 10 minutes… cause it was not from me… and nothing is listed…no names…
any place… no paperwork… none yet…
Tax revenue must be in big trouble… to go that far for $4 grand…
which I had already made arrangements to pay…
Better make sure all your paperwork is above question folks. They are looking…
Lets see how the assignments and taxes are doing in a few months…
I’m very careful 3 full audits later, I keep everything.I I was correct on all 3. “my paperwork was proven and proof provided that my facts were correct”.
Silver
Pay them the money and perhaps they’ll stop.
Good advice to everybody. Don’t mess with CRA.
Showed this article to my wife her reply was “I would not even get out of the car to look inside any of those”
Ha ha ha
I think The Vancouver Sun has hit rock bottom. They need something to sell their papers…
There are really only two types of potential buyers for these types of properties.
1. Small time developers looking to tear down and build (usually low quality) spec house and try to flip.
2. Immigrant families who don’t mind slumming it out and do cheap renos, or not, and rent out half the house to make the mortgage payments. Hope for appreciation.
I didn’t mention young local families, I think they would rather move farther away or condos.
Are you kidding me? They’d have to pay ME to live in those dumps!
No kidding.
Vancouver is a very sad place for real estate.
it’s kind of a sad place for a lot of people