“I have no desire to move back to grey wet days.”

“I left Vancouver about 15 years ago after growing up & being educated there. Vancouver is THE most beautiful city in the world – when it’s sunny. Unfortunately, those days are few. I don’t want to put down my hometown but wake up people – those real estate prices are just stupid. Created more by poor government policy than anything. Greed combined with short term thinking to make present careers look good. It’s good to see that people are waking up and realizing it’s just not worth it. Being house poor in a rainy city with a bogus transit system. Most livable city – my derriere! The good news is that there are great alternatives in terms of where to live. In the short term there’s adjustment but I have no desire to move back to grey wet days. The thought of living in Vancouver actually depresses me. If you live in Vancouver, seek God: it’s possible to be salt and light in the darkest of places. Your only other option is to wallow in a dark, damp, grey, downward spiral of negativity and depression while you wait for the next sunny day.”
– honest weights at greaterfool.ca 18 Oct 2011 9:37pm

Whooaaaaa!
It’s not that bad.
Dress right; go for a walk in the rain; get stuff done.
File under: Sentiment, extreme; Minority belief.
– vreaa

A Gentle Bull: “Maybe I’m just trying to reassure myself that it’s OK to own a very small piece of paradise, as I do.”

This from MikeOnTheMic at greaterfool.ca 23 Jan 2010 1:47 pm –

“As a life-long Vancouverite, I agree that RE prices here are not realistic. When would you all think that we started to exceed realistic prices? In the early 2000’s? Anyways, I’m hoping that we get back to realistic RE pricing at some point over the next few years. Maybe with what’s going on in the markets this past week we will see the start of a return to RE sanity soon.

On the other hand, I am a bit puzzled by the consistently pejorative terms and connotations I often read here [greaterfool.ca] when it comes to describing Vancouver and the implication that RE ownership here is crazy (current unrealistic prices notwithstanding). It was 15C and sunny here yesterday. The cherry blossoms are starting to come out, as they usually do on the West Coast at this time of the year. You can start your day-off driving 20 minutes out of town to go snowboarding all morning and then grab lunch on the way to the beach and windsurf / kitesurf all afternoon.

I have a neighbor who works in Korea full time so that his wife and kids can live here. He visits twice a year for a week at a time. He says that it is a dream for him to have his family live here because his kids’ prospects are so much better. This is not uncommon.

I grew up here and lived through the 1980’s influx of families from SE Asia, many of whom were able to purchase expensive RE. Having travelled to many places in Asia and experiencing first-hand the quality of life in that part of the world, it is no surprise to me that people are still flocking to our shores. As their economies improve, the upwardly mobile should increase in number and many will likely look to follow their emigrated friends and family.

I’ve lived on the East Coast through brutal winters and snow / ice storms through until May-June. A lot of people I knew out there were either dreaming about or planning to move out West at some point.

I’ve had friends visit from Europe who can’t believe the relatively low cost of living here when it comes to basic things like groceries, gas, utilities, etc…

Some posters here have compared Vancouver / Victoria lifestyle / RE / economic issues with those in the SF Bay area – fair enough – but we’ve got free health care and less random crime (OK – crime in Vancouver is a problem, but have you been to Oakland?).

Aside from stupid RE prices right now, I guess one other downside is the earthquake risk here, but if anyone is really worried about that, you could always bury a school bus and use it as an underground bünkerhaus. Not much of a view, but you might get some geothermal heat for free

Maybe I’m just trying to reassure myself that it’s OK to own a very small piece of paradise here, as I do. I agree that there is a huge need for folks to ponder the emotion that colours these considerations. Thanks to your advice Garth, I’ll try to ensure that my RE risk is not at foolish levels. Maybe I’m just a local guy who loves living here and thinks that the place gets a bit of a raw deal on this blog, all b/c RE is currently over-priced. But hey, don’t you know that it rains all the time in Vancouver? Who would want to live there anyway? Peace.”

Unexpected Expenses For Condo Buyers: “Where I’m renting, the owners had to come up with $20,000 each to replace the membranes in a 12 year old building.”

This exchange at vancouvercondo.info 17 Jan 2010 –

hippo 11:10 am – “A friend’s 16 year new condo building needs repiping done, budgeted at $1 million. The piping system was supposed to last 20-25 years. Each unit has to cough up around $8,000. But they are have trouble hiring contractors.”

crabman 11:34 am – “$8,000 special assessment for a 16 year old building? They got off easy! Where I’m renting, the owners had to come up with $20,000 each to replace the membranes in a 12 year old building. Of course, compared to the Governor’s Tower, my landlord got off easy, too. Those guys had to cough up $120,000 each, for a 13 year old sieve. [They had] to replace the entire building envelope!”

“Do Vancouverites Tend To Overvalue Shelter Because It Rains So Much?”

In the realm of psychological speculation, sure, but a wonderful thought nonetheless. At the very least, worth a chuckle. The exchange below appeared at vancouvercondo.info, after about one week of extremely heavy rain. -vreaa

buffates 15 Jan 2010 8:27 am – “I’m not one to dwell on the weather…but honestly when you have rain like we’ve had over the past week it definitely contributes to the argument that Vancouver is by no means the end all be all. I keep having to remind myself that most of the world seeks, craves and wants live with sun most of the year. I have heard many people joking that they hope their house doesn’t float away. I definitely wouldn’t want to borrow 700K for a crappy house unless it was a tropical paradise. East Van does not qualify as a tropical paradise.”

World Class Soggy 15 Jan 2010 8:55 am – “I wonder if the tendency of Vancouverites to overvalue housing has to do with the shitty winter weather? I also wonder if that’s why we have a problem with construction quality. So much of our construction seems like it was thrown up as quickly as possible to get out of the rain. “Just throw some stucco and a tarp on it, we’ll fix it later.”

—

Addendum: On the subject of rain, this from pricedoutfornow at vancouvercondo.info 15 Jan 2010 7:43 pm – “Due to all this rain, my ceiling is leaking. I told the building manager today at 3pm and she’s arranged for someone to come over tomorrow at 9am to fix it. Was contemplating how if I owned, rather than rented this apartment, I’d be on the hook for paying to fix the leak. Or perhaps would have the headache of arguing it with the strata nazis, since the leak seems to be originating from the roof. None of that for me, I’ll be off to the gym tomorrow while the guy fixes it, and leave it to the landlord to cut him a cheque. Ha! Oh the joy of renting…”