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It’s rude to ask how much one makes or how much something cost. Isn’t it crass to ask if someone owns?

I know a fellow who tells less fortunate people he knows (who didn’t inherit $$$$$) that he’s renting the house he lives in and owns, it makes him feel akward telling people he’s rich and he sees no benefit to making others feel bad.

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“I’ve never considered myself a second class citizen when I rented in other cities, but here in Vancouver people are ***completely*** defined by whether you rent or own. I’ve never seen anything like it, ever.”

That’s largely a product of the bubble. It wasn’t always that way here. I think it’s a part of the denial/fear dialogue that goes on in the heads of owners. They know deep down that the appreciation we’ve been seeing is abnormal and ‘too good to be true’ so they bluster and brag and put others down who aren’t as ’smart’ as they are.

It’s very much like how many of the the worst gay bashers and womanisers are worried about their own sexuality, so they externalize their fear of themselves and over compensate.

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The point is, I’m a BC boy, born and raised, this is my home. But at the end of the day the economy dictates where people will live. It’s jobs not scenery, polluted oceans and mountains. We’ll see how our province looks jobs wise once all these unsustainable construction projects are complete.

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Too bad. Renters are saving tons of money. Some cities (especially in Europe) allow signing of multi-year leases. For some reason these are rare in Vancouver. Maybe this is the mother of all bubbles that breaks the back of the city’s dependence on real estate for building and flaunting wealth.

When I moved here from back east the reclusive nature of people here seemed weird. Everyone had their own thing going on and neighbors weren’t that close by default. Block parties used to be common in the east whereas here it’s maybe once a year and it’s not the norm — the city goes out of its way to encourage block parties as a way of making the city more friendly. There are pockets of good neighborhoods around but it takes a lot of searching.

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Maybe? Depends when it was. Bash away, but lots of people LOVE living in Vancouver, have traveled extensively, and still migrate back. Others hate it.

Vancouver prices are high and incomes are low on a national scale — i.e. poor affordability. I will not second guess 2.5 million people making a rational decision about where they want to live and at what cost. Vancouver may not be for everyone but lots like it for what it is; on the flipside I know many people who would never live in Vancouver. Those that choose to live here have reasons beyond the usual platitudes of “climate, water and mountains”. The city has amenities catering to certain ethnic groups and I’m sure that commands a premium for many. The list goes on but the market has spoken and not just recently — Vancouver has had relatively poor affordability for decades. I have a hard time believing it’s Kool Aid.

“However, Halifax has mild winters for the same reason Vancouver does: It’s on the water.”

Halifax can get pretty cold in the winter months but many like to live there regardless. Blizzards. Real blizzards. Lucky for them they can afford more for less. I think we can agree weather is a bit of a sidebar.

I use Honolulu as an example of another market where affordability is poor. HNL is not YVR by any means but the same principle applies: relatively nice weather and environment on a national basis commands a premium in terms of high prices and low wages. I know people who lived there and didn’t like it: too laid back and too expensive.

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US banks have written down $450 billion in bad housing loans. The revelation from NAB means that they will now certainly need to take provisions to $1,000 billion. But write-downs of $1,300 billion and perhaps even more are on the cards.

http://www.businessspectator.c.....mp;src=sph

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The weather thing now makes me laugh. I’ve lived in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver now for extended periods. Ottawa and Toronto have terrible weather. However, Halifax has mild winters for the same reason Vancouver does: It’s on the water.

And there are other problems with living in Vancouver. I’ve never considered myself a second class citizen when I rented in other cities, but here in Vancouver people are ***completely*** defined by whether you rent or own. I’ve never seen anything like it, ever.

I have a friend who is ending a 5 year relationship. No matter how I try ad convince him renting is a smart idea for him now, he won’t even consider it. He won’t really explain why but you can tell the subtext…. for him it’s like going back to being ‘poor’.

The oceans and the mountains here are nice and all but I’m not at all sure I’m sticking around any more, and part of the reason is I’m just getting burned out on dealing with the whole “best place on earth” kool aid fest…….

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Similar to the stupid argument that I have witnessed being waged on these blogs in the past regarding the “best place on earth”. What a tough sell to anyone that lives in the place your boosting as the best…. yawn.

Moving on…our Canadian economy just keeps trucking along… BCE cut 2,500 jobs yesterday. Drop in the bucket compared to what our precious forestry is seeing, but front page news nonetheless. Don’t cry for them, they were middle management, ergo they probably had it coming.

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You’re attempting to debate with a retarded monkey.

This is the time to remember the old adage;

“Never argue with an idiot, they’ll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

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They are. That’s why I posted the affordability info and not the median cost. Affordability takes wage into consideration.

Vancouver is nearly dead last in the Statscan list of top 25 Canadian cities (by population) for wages.

We’re ahead of Abbotsford, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and St John.

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/En.....70529e.htm

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Past performance is not too bad and the prediction won’t be bad as well-here is little recap for b.c. population growth.
April 1st 2008 4,428,356
April 1st 2002 4,105,904″

Fine and dandy. I thought we were talking about the city of Vancouver, not the whole province. I doubt the population doubled or will double in Vancouver anytime soon, which was your assertion.

Saying population is doubling quickly is as me saying sometime in the future there will be more people in Canada. It’s such a vague statement that doesn’t show anything.

It also depends who is increasing those numbers. Is it immigrants from other countries? Believe it or not most recent immigrants, according to a Statistics Canada report report , perform worse economically than people born in Canada so they probably wouldn’t be buying real estate quickly (the wage gap takes years to eliminate). And if there are less immigrants now, as I indicated in a previous link, then that just means less buyers.

This of course, if you want to make a rational analysis. You could always say prices are going to keep going sky high and people will flock to Vancouver based on a hunch.

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Ah yes, data. Thanks. I believe incomes in Vancouver are lower compared to Toronto (data). It’s a combination of lower incomes and higher rents (and cost of living) that should be indicative of a city’s desirability.

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“A reading of 100 means that a two-bedroom apartment would eat up 30 per cent of income, using the rule of thumb that a household should spend less than 30 per cent of its income on rent. A lower reading indicates they are spending more than that, and a higher reading indicates less.

Toronto, having the least affordable rental market since 2004, is the only city to see an increase in affordability this year but to a reading of just 94 from 91, meaning that rental costs would still exceed the 30-per-cent benchmark.

In contrast, Montreal’s reading this year, at 130, is down from 133. The readings from the other cities and the change from 2006, were Vancouver unchanged at 101, Calgary 103 and down from 109, Halifax unchanged at 112″

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“Who is this Krissh? I am informer warehouse worker #1″

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Halifax rents are more similar to Victoria, which has a similar size and economy.

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You need to face reality – fundamentals are totally out of whack.

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Decent year-round weather, mountains, craphole rental
OR
Snow, no mountains, renting a Victorian heritage home

Nothing is free and people in both locales have made their rational choices. Tells me Vancouver offers something other places don’t and it’s not just hubris.

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Moved to Vancouver, and even making more than $100K as a family we really couldn’t afford to buy anything decent. Rent for crapholes is more than we paid in Halifax.

Lifestyle in Vancouver is terrible right now.

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