I bought old. The place is equivalent to an old rental which would probably be what I’d be living in if I still rented. I don’t like to pay high rents and don’t need granite countertops, although as an owner, I can always renovate if they suddenly become a “necessity”. The value is mostly in the land the building sits on.

Brand new buildings are like new cars. They depreciate a lot in the first few years. One place I looked at was only four years old and was listed at around 30% of what it cost new. But you have to be careful when you’re buying into an older building and make sure the roof, boiler and whatever has been replaced when they reach the end of their lifetime. Renting old in South Granville is better than buying new anywhere right now.

This is too much..in a few years, it will be the airport syndrome at Howe and Davie…new naive condo owners under water petitioning city hall to shut down all the bars (who pay high taxes) who were there first.

I’m so friggin excited, I won’t be able to sleep tonight.

That’s interesting. I have done the math over and over again in south granville (not the MLS south granville), and I just can’t justify paying about a 100% premium to buy *new* versus renting old.

That’s absurd. Suppose your condo has a market price of 300K. If you sell you’ve got 150K cash since you say you have 50% equity.

You can easily rent a nice condo for 1250/month or 15K a year.
You can get 4% on the 150K no problem, that’s 6K a year.

Net cost of shelter 9K a year or 750/month waiting out the crash.But that’s less than what you’re paying right now on mortgage, condo fees, taxes, etc.

When opportunity cost knocks, answer the door.

Of course it does. Even if you have bought recently, it still makes sense to sell now and rent. Then buy when the market is 50% of its current value. You will have $150K less mortgage.”

I don’t know where everyone is getting the rental prices. I wouldn’t mind cashing out the equity in my condo, but have been looking for a rental for a couple of years and have yet to find anything in a neighbourhood I like that’s less than my mortgage + strata fees + taxes. My insurance would go up as a renter. And I have a dog.

If I were to sell today and the market went down by 50%, I’d be mortgage-free, but I’d never make up what I’d have to pay in rent while waiting for the market to crash even if I invested all the equity when I cashed out. Yes, I’ve done the math over and over. If I wasn’t sure of this, there’d be a For Sale sign up.

No there won’t and no they won’t.

First, you’re forgetting that only BC has such an extreme level of overvaluation. The rest of the country is not going to see anywhere near 50%, not even Alberta. So the effect on Canada’s banks overall is going to be diluted.

At the bottom of the early 80’s bust, qualified buyers had no problem at all getting financing, and that was after a 45% nominal decline, both here and in Alberta. And to top it off the Bank of BC and two Alberta banks had failed. The upcoming bust is not going to be bigger than that.

Note also that even today with the current unprecedented national bust and credit crisis in the US, qualified buyers there are having no problem getting financing.

Second, high ratio mortgages are all insured, almost all by CMHC, so the banks have no downside on a bust anyway, other than some overhead costs associated with foreclosure.

IMO Canadian banks have already incurred far greater losses from their holdings of uninsured US mortgage garbage than they will in the upcoming BC/Alberta bust and Toronto correction.

I have 100% cash for my next purchase and I’ve love to see the banks stop lending so I can buy at Great Depression multiples, but it’s not going to happen.

Did they all move to Vancouver?????

If you are retired and have real money and wanted great medical, the choices are South Florida and San Diego”

burritos flammbe maybe?

Making predictions doesn’t mean they will happen.”

Did i say i had a crystal ball? Did i make any predictions? Did i say i was better than any of you? Did i say “down”? Did I say “up”?

Maybe i just think things will be interesting 2 years from now? I’m sure i’m not the only one on this blog curious about what happens in the next few years.

Yeah, inventory is at 15,500 give or take, you won’t have to wait very long. 15,500 might not be alot for NYC but it’s eye popping for Vancouver.

Making predictions doesn’t mean they will happen.

We’ll all just have to wait and see.”

oh you can bet we’ll be waiting to see.

2 years was the minimum time I’d be living there, but, I could stay 10 years if necessary. Why do you think 2 years is “very dangerous”? 2 years could potentially be a great time to sell right before the Olympics, or shortly after.

We’ll all just have to wait and see.

But, I was amazed to see people still lining up to buy a condo in the current environment. I thought they might have a hard time selling them now, but, apparently not. We’ll have to wait and see, I guess.

This is because somewhere in the cyberspace between my keyboard and your eyeballs, the blogging software incorrectly defaults the Name field when you’re adding comment. For example, I had to delete “vanguy” from the Name field and enter my handle BBY. It’s an annoying bug; so be sure to verify the name that you’re submitting comments under. It’s not just “nyc”; it randomly happens to quite a few posts I believe.

Again, CHECK THE NAME FIELD WHEN SUBMITTING COMMENTS!!!

[A public service announcement from BBY.]