Vancouver, "Seriously Unaffordable"

[mrjauk]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

I guess it depends on your plans in life. Getting married, etc. For one person you may not want to buy, for two, it could make more sense for you.

I really think that you don't understand what Warren12 is saying. It doesn't matter if you fit one or two or twelve people into a home. That doesn't change the rent versus buy calculation. The real estate industrial complex has done a great job of making people believe that home ownership is the sine qua non criterion of housing bliss. It can be; it can also be financial albatross around your neck, as many millions in the US, Great Briatin, Spain, Ireland, etc., have recently found out and more thousands (tens of thousands, perhaps) in Vancouver will find out as well.

[whatnext]

A friend who's house-hunting sent me this listing to prove you could still buy a place West of Main for under $600k. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry :
http://www.pauleviston.com/ActiveLis...ls/746/details

[nickinacan]

Originally Posted by mrjauk

I really think that you don't understand what Warren12 is saying. It doesn't matter if you fit one or two or twelve people into a home. That doesn't change the rent versus buy calculation. The real estate industrial complex has done a great job of making people believe that home ownership is the sine qua non criterion of housing bliss. It can be; it can also be financial albatross around your neck, as many millions in the US, Great Briatin, Spain, Ireland, etc., have recently found out and more thousands (tens of thousands, perhaps) in Vancouver will find out as well.

Well put. Just wait for the Bank of Canada to put up their interest rates and the real estate market will be a bargain again. Too many people out there have mortgages that are high dollar value and low interest. As soon as that interest rate creeps up, their payments will rise dramatically. And if you barely qualified for your mortgage to begin with (As many have) you will most certainly be in trouble. I would rather have a low dollar mortgage with a high interest rate than a high dollar value mortgage and a low interest rate. And don't even get me started at those fools that didn't put down a downpayment.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by whatnext

A new study ranks Vancouver as the "most unaffordable housing market in the world":

The Centre's Wendell Cox says Vancouver gets a 9.3 on the index, a figure suggesting the average house sells for more than nine times the average annual salary. "The numbers are very clear on it. Vancouver is exceedingly expensive."

Wendell Cox runs Demographia, a right-wing think tank that is a staunch opponent of smart growth and transit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Cox

His solution?

The report includes an introduction by Tony Recsei, president of the Australian group, Save Our Suburbs, and calls on governments to allow more housing to be built on the fringes of urban areas.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...rdability.html

I'm not losing sleep. Read critically, people....

[nickinacan]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

Wendell Cox runs Demographia, a right-wing think tank that is a staunch opponent of smart growth and transit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Cox

His solution?



http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...rdability.html

I'm not losing sleep. Read critically, people....

Statistics can be manipulated to say anything you want, but his facts are true. But does that mean We will be saying "f*** it" and build more houses on top of our farmland? Not at all. It just means we have to look at how to make housing more affordable to the people that live here. You will never get rid of the suburban life, but why not just reinvent it? Why not build higher instead of wider? Why not have narrower, taller houses? You can easily fit these giant homes they are building on smaller lots if you could just add another floor on top. Maybe our cities should be making adjustments to their residential FARs.

[racc]

Originally Posted by nickinacan

Statistics can be manipulated to say anything you want, but his facts are true. But does that mean We will be saying "f*** it" and build more houses on top of our farmland? Not at all. It just means we have to look at how to make housing more affordable to the people that live here. You will never get rid of the suburban life, but why not just reinvent it? Why not build higher instead of wider? Why not have narrower, taller houses? You can easily fit these giant homes they are building on smaller lots if you could just add another floor on top. Maybe our cities should be making adjustments to their residential FARs.

The "study" is seriously flawed. If you look at their report on their web site, http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf , Detroit and other rust belt cities where the economy has collapsed, came out on top in terms of affordably. It is pretty clear that the reason why these cities are affordable is because everyone no wants to live there thus people are leaving leaving in droves and yet the study tries to say it is because they allow sprawl. Ridiculous.

There is also a story on CBC http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/201...rdability.html

[SpongeG]

i just met someone who moved here from Seoul Korea and they wanted to buy but are renting as they find it far too expensive here to buy and they seem to have money

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by quobobo

^^ Yep, always those foreigners.

(if I could roll my eyes at you through the internet, I would)

Where are all the eye-rollers now?

Scarrow added that once Metro Vancouver's market thawed in the spring of 2009, "mainland Chinese buyers started getting on board as well."

Scarrow said foreign buyers are coming into Metro Vancouver from Australia, Europe and the United States, but they are being overshadowed by mainland Chinese purchasers who view Canada as a good country to provide a western education for their children and Canadian real estate as a safe storehouse for their wealth.
http://www.vancouversun.com/business...076/story.html

So Junior gets a university crash pad, and we all get to contend with housing price inflation that ensues.

[vansky]

mainland china has tons of money to spend in vancouver