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January 25th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
What constitutes a ‘lie’? When the government is lieing? When the press is lieing? When you’re covetous neighbor isn’t telling the truth? All three? Gold star on that choice.
We’re being told that Vanshithole ‘is the best place on earth’ via a propagandea campaign meant to keep the stupid spendin the government out of taking responsibility for its own mess. Are the sheeple falling for it? Yes they are. Why, because they’re lazy and frightened that the house of cards they’ve got sucked into better stay up or they are in big shit. So they have ‘some skin in the game’ to support the governments pbsfuscations when it comes to the truth.
Now , iof you’re like #48 RB who cames to us as a desperate drefugee of a country whos own culture , religion, people and government have made his own country an absolute shithole and he has had to run away from it, well, you are happy to br anywhere else aside from there. We all understand that.
But we are not frightened refugees running from assholes and bandits in Canada, or are we? Is the use of a public park enough to make you want to suck up all the bullshit that we are being deluged with? Not me? But some differ with me on this topic, especially those who are frightened , stupid or are some sort of ass damaged refugee from Bongo bongo land.
We see the local and national governments pissing the Canadian heritage down the toilet as we speak with a growing debt and phony money policy that will force taxes into the stratosphere. we already see how BOC Carney the Conman has been distancing himself from the zero rate policy and the hyperinflation it is causing.
I got a prop tax assesment in the mail and trust me, as a professional, it means nothing to me. I’m not proud to think that this ‘value’ is anything but a ponzi scam by the local government to screw me out of higher taxes so that they can’t balance another budget next year.
Reality is that jobs are going down, taxes up. I talkied to a cab driver at VIA thia am who told me that he worked 17 hours yesterday to make 85 bucks.he says he can’t find another job, hes an immigrant and he agrees that the governments sales job about Canada has all been a lie.
He told me that the cabbies have been screwed by Vanoc, that they are bringing 300 private cars and drivers from a company in the US (busses inc) and there have been major restrictions on cabbies access to downtown hotels. He’s pissed at the OY Oy show as a big scam.
He showed me the special side door they have constructed at VIA to shuffle the ‘family’ (mafia more like) past customs/immi and into waiting private transpo. No OY OY bonus for the locals there.
Guess who pays for the US drivers food and lodging….wait for it……you are fool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meanwhile the real story on post stimulus money is moving us towards a big double dip.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/.....0&.v=6
January 25th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
I know the article is discussing averages, but it is rather shocking to say the least.
The last time I bought a property was in 2003, the banks and mortgage lenders would only give me 2.5 times my gross income. That was the max and that was the standard, no one would give me more on the ratio. I had to get another income stream in order to borrow more.
9.3 times income? Again, I know it’s an average and plenty of homes have more than one income (spouses, mortgage helpers, grow ups, whatever) so it’s to be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s just so outrageous!
I did a quick search, curious to see how much I can borrow, since I’ve heard that everything has tightened up considerably. My wife and I can borrow 4.7 times our gross income. I ran some other numbers and reached 5.5 times income. So it looks like the banks are willing to lend you Mr. Borrower – 4.5 – 5.5 X gross income!
Just think about that for a second and read the part of the article where they say anything above 5.1 times income is “severly unaffordable”! Severely unaffordable? The banks are willing to lend you more than that right out of the gate! What the hell does that say? There’s a complete disconnect from what is prudent and what the banks are giving you, WTF??? Don’t bother explaining that to me, it’s just speculation by the banks/lenders. They’re looking at cashing in on this boom and they do it big, and simple, one word: VOLUME.
What happened to the 2.5 standard? There was a reason they used 2.5 times your gross. It was to protect Mr. Borrower from borrowing too much as well as to protect them from you defaulting. All the sudden, none of that is a concern, a new sheriff is in town with bags of endless debt to go around, come and git’it!
When this bubble pops (which you’ll only see after it pops by the way) there’s going to be so much blame to go around it’s going to get nauseating fast! Especially the MSM! I can already here the mindless news anchors on global tv reading their scripts… puke.
January 25th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
you have so many unanswered question
if you only see the job career and property prices
I think developing countries will be the perfect answer for you
the question is
which developing countries offer you free schooling ? free medication ? free giving birth ?
which city in developing countries have a lot of parks if not only surrounded by mountains as well as next to the beach ?
which developing country could give an average salary as high (or as low as ?) as Vancouver ?
now you have too many unanswered question
btw, where do you live ?
and now I asked, why your city is not as good as Vancouver according to citymajors.com ? (I believe you don’t live in Vienna, Zurich nor Geneva, do you ?)
could you please answer to those questions instead of ‘just complaining’ ?
village idiot from Bandung
January 25th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
@patriotz:
I think there’s also a misconception about “walking away” from you home if you end up underwater: it’s much easier in MOST of the U.S. – up here…not so much.
Correct me if I’m wrong. But maybe that’s a topic for an entire post on its own.
“In Canada the banks are national and have far more resources to handle foreclosures (more than 1/2 of which will be in BC)”
Is that an estimate? Can you elaborate?
January 25th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
I can tell you, this thing will end badly; no boom ends well. It was actually over in 2008 until the central bank stepped in and fuelled the economy with cheap credit. But it’s all artificial and once rates increase and the govt stimulus ends… watch out below!
January 25th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
@Anonymous #44
Bungalows with yards, that’s a huge difference. We take our kids to the park across the street every day it’s not pissing rain (not many lately) but we can’t just let them go out and play in the yard on their own like your parents or grandparent’s used to be able to do.
Did your grandparents have a dog or cat? Its a luxury that not many rents or owners can have in an apartment.
Did both of your grandparents work just to afford to raise their kids? I doubt they packed all 6 kids off the daycare every morning.
Having 2 working parents is a huge strain. Childcare is very expensive, if you live downtown you have to sign up as soon as you are pregnant to get a spot. While going to elementary school requires camping out for 3 days in the snow for a spot. Then you get to call the boss a couple times a month that you couldn’t come in because your kid’s are sick so you have to take another personal day to stay home. Parent’s don’t have time to be good parents anymore.
Oh and one last thing, did you grandparent’s save money for retirement or have a pension plan? Probably. A shocking number of people have no long term savings, they don’t even have a little bit of money saved “just in case”.
January 25th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
@JordanClark
Don’t feel bad for this generation of kids. Both sets of my grandparents owned small (~1200sqft) bungalows and had 6 kids. They slept 2-3 kids to a room. My parents and aunts/uncles all turned out just fine, with tons of rewarding stories about growing up to listen to.
I shared a room with my little brother, we had bunk beds. I don’t feel deprived cause of it (except those times I fell off the top bunk while asleep
.
I feel bad for the parents. My grandparents paid very little for their homes and had enough money to spend on kids.
January 25th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
this is to say
“more stupid people in Vancouver”
January 25th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
@1st Time Home Buyer
My parents rented when my brother and I were young. There’s nothing wrong with renting and having a family, especially in this market.
There is something wrong with paying 66% of your income towards housing. Do you want a family or a house? I’d rather have the disposable income to spend on my family, than some box in the sky.
Why do you want to own? Its no more secure than renting (actually less secure if you’re paying such a high percentage of your income to own), and its not like you can personalize a condo very much (especially when you’re unable to save $$$ for renos since its all going to the mortgage).
January 25th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
@Gordon C
“So here is another view. If your in your early twenties and you have to buy – then go big and have very little skin in the game. Buy in a new project, max out that mortgage and if things go sour in the market, stop making payments. The worst that will happen is a bad credit rating for a few short years and you will probably get to live in the condo for a year or more free.”
A few short years is 7 years, IF you’re allowed to declare bankruptcy. Otherwise the bank can seize all your assets (except RRSPs) and garnish your ages.
To declare bankruptcy you have to fail an income test. Thus if you qualified for the mortgage recently, and haven’t lost your job, most likely you’ll pass the income test and be subject to paying off your debts.
We’re often fooled by US statistics. The bankruptcy income test is much easier in the US to fail, thus why even Americans with recourse mortgages can walk away from their debt.
January 25th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
1st time home buyer:
Here is my opinion. Don’t compromise in order to buy. Only buy if you can get the place of your dreams. Otherwise, you should be renting. You will quickly find that 2 bedrooms is not big enough to raise a child once he starts running around. Only buy if the cost is comparable to renting. That means comparing renting in Richmond to buying in Richmond. For the money you are willing to spend on buying, you could rent an entire house in Richmond or a nice townhouse in Vancouver. If your salary is fixed, surely you want to keep your housing costs more or less fixed? Having a child can be a life altering event, it is impossible to predict what your life will be like with one. My advice, have the child in your current apartment, then move when your child is 12 months old or older to another place. But remember, do not compromise in order to buy, as you will be stuck there for many years – you better love the place!
How sad – it requires two good incomes to buy a nice condo in Richmond!
January 25th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
@oneangryslav2 Ugh. That’s unfortunate. I see your point. My bro already has a kid and we’ve talked about the childcare situation. Having him and my folks nearby is a huge deal for all of us, so it hasn’t been a decision taken lightly either.
If anyone thinks getting an affordable place in Vancouver is an adventure, try finding reasonable and affordable daycare. From what my friends with offspring have told me, that’s a more of a challenge.
January 25th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
@1st Time Home Buyer:
Everything else aside, crunch the numbers on a 20%-down mortgage and a <20%-down mortgage. With CMHC holding the bag for the latter and not the bank, you might find that you'll be offered a better interest rate (or, put another way since your quoted rate probably assumes a lower down payment, find out how much more the interest rate will be if you put 20% down).
January 25th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Patriotz, thanks, just read what you just mentioned. Future earnings can be considered part of teh bankruptcy settlement. Another juicy tidbit is that the previous 12 months RRSP’s are part of teh bankruptcy estate in non-RRSP exempt provinces. Not sure what BC’s status is on that. Either way, I have a feeling that they (the creditors lawyers) are going to try to get as much out of someone as legally possible in bankruptcy court.
January 25th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
@1st Time Home Buyer:
I wasn’t living in Vancouver when my sister and her husband decided to have children. Prior to that blessed event my parents and my sister’s husband’s family were also “very keen” on helping out with childcare. And they continued to be keen when the beautiful baby was born, just not “very” keen. But that keenness wavered even more upon the birth of child number two, and by the time child number three had arrived, I’d characterize everybody’s willingness to help out as…well, what’s an antonymic term for “very keen”?
This meant that my sister could not continue to work–even part-time–and their standard of living almost fifteen years on continues to be less than it would have been had the “very keen” help materialized as expected.
January 25th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
@SD92129:
A bankruptcy judgment is binding on the debtor and creditors. The creditors have to take what the judgment gives them and cannot come back and ask for more. Now the judgment could include garnishment of future earnings, but I don’t think that happens much.
But I’m not quite sure you and I are talking about the same thing. Bankruptcy is a legal proceeding, it doesn’t mean “I can’t pay my bills”.
January 25th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
@SD92129 Yup, I hear ya on the “website” thing. Besides reading this and Garth Turner, we’ve thought about it lots. Hard to hear dissenting opinions from family and friends and our realtor when everyone has bought and sold places. I find it useful to hear reasoned and valid arguments here.
@JordanClark This is the big reason for moving to Richmond. Family has told us that they are very keen on helping out with childcare. My wife likes to work and she’s very reasonable. She has the option to work part time when the kids “arrive”.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
@Anonymous We are paying $1500-1600/mo total at the rental place. (Rent, parking, cable/internet/TV/phone, hydro/heat/gas, phone, insurance, misc expenses like new furniture over the years). That’s everything I consider MUST PAY expenses for a roof over my head and inside the apartment
For any potential condo that we are looking to buy, I calculate this to include Mortgage, strata fee, property taxes, cable/internet/TV/phones, hydro/heat/gas, insurance, & misc expenses like new furniture over the years). When I calculate the mortgage on the new place, I use a 4.25 fixed interest rate with a 20% DP on the listing price.
Gotta try and compare apples to apples. I found that the devil is in the details when it comes to the info in the RE listings.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
@1st Time Home Buyer: I feel bad for this next generation of kids, who live in a small apartment, have no yard, both parent’s are working, being raised in daycare.
I say this with 2 young kid’s myself who live in our smallish 1100sqft apartment. I feel pretty luck that we can survive on 1 income because we are in a non-profit family building and have plenty for a down payment when prices drop.
You need to seriously consider if you want to limit yourself to 1 child by buying a small 2 bedroom apartment. You need to realize even if you and your wife don’t think so now you have a very significant risk that your wife will want to stay at home with the kid(s). By buying a place you can hardly afford you are forcing her decision to go back to work immediately. You might be adding an enormous amount of stress on her self esteem as a parent and your relationship.
Buying is not the only option.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Just for some clarification patriotz (#30), are you sure that bankruptcy will prevent any garnishment of wages due to defaulting and foreclosure on a recourse loan?
And for 1st Time, opinion from an anonymous internet site does not constitute real legal/financial advice. This is almost for entertainment purposes only. buying a home is generally one’s largest financial transaction in life. don’t go into it lightly. In the past, young/naive/uniformed people did fine because the market ran up and no one lost money. If the ride does go down, it definetly wont be as fun.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
@Starving Artist:
One, mortgages are recourse in BC (and in most of the US contrary to what people think BTW).
Two, the reasons why banks in the US are letting people get behind on payments without foreclosing are that in many cases they are just too busy to handle the foreclosure, and many of them don’t want to have the foreclosure losses show up on their books yet. In Canada the banks are national and have far more resources to handle foreclosures (more than 1/2 of which will be in BC), and CMHC insures the loan so they have an incentive to foreclose as quickly as they can and get their cash back.
Three, CMHC (or the credit agency which it sells the debt to) WILL pursue each and every defaulter until they pay up or declare bankruptcy.
But I think those buying today are thinking as you say. Well they have a few surprises coming.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
@1st Time Home Buyer: Are you paying 1100/month for rent or 1500/month?
January 25th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
1st time:
We’d pay $2100 for mortgage, insurance, condo fees, heat, cable & phone. That’s ~66%
These numbers don’t work for me personally, I do not know about you but it seems way less than the real values.
Two more things: a. If the condo leaks in 10 years, you still have to pay the fix since it’s your condo. Not if you rent.
b. Kids are VERY expensive. I envy you for having ‘free’ child care, but even with that, it’s a bottomless pit.
VRENGD
Why? Why do we stay here?
Our reasons are different than yours: We wanted to live in a boring place, where nothing really happens. We came from a place where buses explode.
We could have chosen the US, but we don’t like their flavor of capitalism and arrogance.
The final choice was the following three countries: Spain, Australia, Canada. Our magic ball told us the buses will sometime start exploding in Spain and Australia as well, so we chose Canada.
Out of all Canada, here is the least cold, and being from a warm climate, we don’t do well in snow. So for us it IS the best place on earth. But we are not buying.
Regards
arit
January 25th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
@VRENGD Dude, Vancouver rocks. You’re talking to someone who’s born and raised here. Yeah, it’s expensive to buy here but hey, I’m not into moving anywhere else. I’d probably feel the same if I was in your position though. Each to their own, i suppose.
@crabman There was only one other realtor and their client at the viewing. Maybe 2-3 yrs ago there would have been 5. So let’s have it, if you had to buy, what would you do?
@Gordon C yeah, thanks. But not making payments b/c you’ve decided to back yourself into a corner financially is a chicken-shit move. If you’ve got extra $$ to blow on an investment like that, go for it, but that’s just something I’d remotely consider for my primary residence.
@smartypants Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. I’m ready to stay in this place even if the market crashes by a third.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
@1st Time Home Buyer:
Condos are worth 120x rent at the very most. What would the condo rent for? Well I doubt it would rent for more than this one:
$1595 / 2br – Richmond’s Finest Building Lotus
Which means the condo you’re looking at can’t be worth more than $200K in fundamental terms, and I’m as sure as I am about anything the market price will fall to that. Or less.
Oh BTW condo rents are falling.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
@1st Time Home Buyer: I’m glad we didn’t buy at the peak of the market 2 years ago
I’ll bet! You would have paid 1.1% more!
http://www.rebgv.org/housing-p.....2009-12-01
January 25th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
So here is another view. If your in your early twenties and you have to buy – then go big and have very little skin in the game. Buy in a new project, max out that mortgage and if things go sour in the market, stop making payments. The worst that will happen is a bad credit rating for a few short years and you will probably get to live in the condo for a year or more free.
I think a lot of that is already happening (young adult speculation) and why I think Canada’s crowing about subprimes in the States is going to shortly bite us in the ass
January 25th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
@1st Time Home Buyer:
First time buyer,
I have the same dilemma.
Here is what I did – I used simple math using a very handy mortgage calculator I found on the web. According to it, here are the figures (but bear in mind this is very rough estimate – principal and interest only, no insurance, taxes or anything like that):
1. Buy now – pay $350K, get it on a variable rate – it’s about 2% at the moment, say it will get to 5% in 5 years, the average is 3.5%.
Your downpayment is 20% and you term is 25 years in both cases.
Here are the numbers: $1400 a month, $800 a month for interest, $600 for principal. After 5 years you would have paid off $38,000 of your mortgage, you have $242,000 to get refinanced after 5 years. @ 5.5% interest rates – your new payment is now ~$1470
2. Buy later- say the price drops to $250,000 after the “crash” but the interest rates are @ 5.5% now. Your payment will be $1220 a month, $900 goes to interest and $315 to principal. After 5 years you would have paid off $21,000 of your mortgage. Refinance after 5 years at 5.5%, your payment is less than $1100/month
Please draw your own conclusions, but this has helped me to make my decision if I should buy, or wait just a bit longer and see what happens. The rates aren’t going anywhere for a while anyway and from what I hear inventory just started to grow.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Take a look at the condo fees. That alone makes me want to continue to rent, or continue to save to buy a SFH. And keep in mind, stratas often like to hit you with “surprise” assessments, I often hear condo owners telling me they had to pay an extra $5k for a burst pipe, $15k for a new roof etc. Also consider, if the place goes down in value, you’ll in a sense, be “stuck” because there won’t be much equity left to upgrade (I assume you don’t want to raise your children in a condo forever? or who knows, maybe you do). I would say sit tight, wait until you actually have a child on the way (which allows you to save more!), or just find a rental in Richmond for the time being. There’s no rush is there?
January 25th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Well, you’ve come on to a “bear” site to ask if you should buy or not. Very Gutsy! The simple truth is you get as much information for or against buying and make your decision. This is not like buying a toaster, you can’t return the condo to the seller if you don’t like the deal.
So here is another view. If your in your early twenties and you have to buy – then go big and have very little skin in the game. Buy in a new project, max out that mortgage and if things go sour in the market, stop making payments. The worst that will happen is a bad credit rating for a few short years and you will probably get to live in the condo for a year or more free.
Its happening in Vegas today. People have bought in new condo projects have not made bank payments for years. As long as they pay maintenance cost and keep the building heated the US banks are not evicting them. The banks prefer the complex to be maintained rather than vacant and deteriorating.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Assuming the posters on this blog live here, I have one question: why?
If you own a house, why not sell it for an insane profit and move to a more exciting, warmer, higher income, less rain, much more affordable city? There are dozens of places that fit the latter description.
If you are renting, why not move for the reasons stated above?
With the most unaffordable RE in the world, cold, rain, lack of any world-class corporations, low salaries why stay here?
My answer, is: my wife is too attched to her Vancouver-based family to move. They all bought RE in the 1980′s so the bubble means nothing to them. If I had my way, I’d be in Seattle or Los Angeles in a heart beat.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Someone has to say it:
“It seems we have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”
January 25th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
@logic Here’s my assumptions: 4.25% fixed, for 5 years. We’d pay $2100 for mortgage, insurance, condo fees, heat, cable & phone. That’s ~66% of my take home pay. Solely. Even with my wife on mat leave, we’d be fine on the budget. With her working right now, we’ve got a cushion to save. Right now we pay $1500 in rent.
@crabman Who knows what the future holds. Vancouver RE didn’t really appreciate in the 80′s & early 90′s until that interest rate dropped from 18% to 5%, right? I’m glad we didn’t buy at the peak of the market 2 years ago but wished we had maybe back in Feb/mar/April when there was 6+ months of inventory in Richmond. Right now, I think it hovers around 2-3 months for condos in Richmond.
January 25th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Based on the criteria that > 5.1 price to income ratio is ‘severely unaffordable’, we’ve been unaffordable since 1989. So what gives? Most of those bearish on real estate admit that prices made sense until sometime around 2002-2005.
Something is wrong with this analysis. Why 5.1?
Not disagreeing that the market is overpriced, but this article is a bit sensationalist in my view. Who is FCPP, and what is their agenda?
January 25th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
@1st Time Home Buyer: You’re asking us if you should pay $600-$700/month more for an asset that will most likely depreciate? That question kind of answers itself, doesn’t it?
January 25th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
“if you had to buy NOW”
——
But you don’t. Just rent somewhere bigger if you need the space.
January 25th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
1700-1800 a month is 66% of your takehome pay?
To this you’ll have to add condo fees, insurance, etc etc, one assumes. And you are planning on having a kid, so your wife’s income will take a big hit while she is on maternity leave. Are you sure she wants to go back to work afterwards? Are you sure childcare will be free? (cos that can eat another 1000 a month easy with a young child).
I can’t tell you yes or no on your decision, but I would advise going over the math a few times, and build in a “what if interest rates go up to 6 or 7%”, and a “what if one of us gets sick” scenario into the math.
Best of luck.
January 25th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
@arit I don’t think this place will leak anytime in the next 10 years from what I’ve seen of it (but knock-on-wood, one never knows).
The thing I want to know from you all – if you had to buy NOW, what would you do to minimize yourselves from a downturn in the market? (Which, given this forum, sounds likely after interest rates increase in the Fall, the gov’t start cutting services/increasing taxes, and HST kicks in.)
Buying a place now with 5% down and supporting a family on one income is ridiculous but I see a lot of people doing it with the interest rates so low.
January 25th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Hey 1st timer,
I would suggest you take a very serious look at this option,
http://public.metrovancouver.o.....fault.aspx
Before you buy the overpriced future-to-be-leaky-condo.
But if you have already made up your mind and are just looking for a confirmation on your decision, I guess you might not find it here.
Best regards
arit
January 25th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
So I’ve been reading this blog for a while and while most commenters here tend to enjoy being Bearish, (and justifibly so in general terms), I’d like to hear ppl’s opinion on this case:
My wife and I have to move. Our commute to work is long (from Vancouver), we’re planning on having a kid so we need more space (1 brdm to 2 bdrms & den), and in that case we’re headed to Richmond so that we are close to my family (cheap daycare!). I’ve grown up there so I know the area.
Here’s the deal. We are renting in Fairview/South Granville area, great apartment for the last 4 years, $1100 in rent. Our landlords, once we move, can easily charge $1600. We are looking at buying in Richmond ~1 km from Richmond City Hall (& skytrain). This place is fully rain-screened, great strata, no huge issues. Meets all our requirements (2+ brdms, 2 baths, over 900 sq ft, storage locker, close to central Richmond, 2 parking spaces, top floor). The Master bedrom is a bit small, but not a big deal, we’ll manage. Built well by a reputable local firm. The building is 6 years with 300+ units total in the strata.
Price on the condo is $375K. Pricey! but owners looking for quick sale, so I might be able to get that down a few notches. $350-365K is manageable for us. May be able to put down 20% and avoid CMHC insurance costs (which will help as I’ve got to buy another used car!) but just barely.
So that’s the scenario. Should we hold out for the spring for more & better listings? This low interest rate is flooding the market with lots of FTHB’s like ourselves but we’re thankfully we’re no rush to buy (yet) but can’t put this off until next winter. We’ve been looking since last summer and this is only the 3rd condo in Richmond that fits what we want.
What would you do? When I compare the costs of renting right now and buying this place, it’s about a $600-700 more a month but would constitute 66% of my take home pay. And we still have my wife’s income as well so I think buying this condo is doable. Yes, in hindsight, buying 5 years ago would have been prudent but we wanted to travel while we were young and childless. We’re both now experience civic servants with stable incomes.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
I don’t have crappy wages (or a salary, as its know).
But I’m still not buying.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Waiting…waiting for the crash.
And for those who say “Oh, well, it’s those rich foreigners who drive up the prices, the ones who don’t need to rely on local incomes to buy” well then, how come houses weren’t $900k before the takeover of Hong Kong in the 90s, when foreigners really WERE coming here in droves? Hmmm? Seems a little too coincidental that the house prices increase just as (almost) free money floods the market, doesn’t it? Forget the foreigners, they come here with not much money and have to make the same crappy wages as the rest of us.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Are they saying Vancouver “affluence” (as measured by house prices versus incomes) is an illusion? That all our wealth is a… “house of cards”?
(gasps…staggers and stumbles…clutches at wall for balance)
My world is spinning…SPINNING!
January 25th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
@jesse: “1. They are looking at price to income ratios. Why are they ignoring mortgage rates? There is a very good reason.”
Umm, yeah. Like the fact that when budgeting a house purchase, relying on the lowest mortgage rates in Canadian history would be a pretty dumb thing to do.
“2. Vancouver is only unaffordable to BUY. If you don’t mind renting or living in a cooperative, the city isn’t as bad as they make out.”
Good luck getting into a coop, and neither coops nor rentals are particularly relevant to a study of the income adjusted cost of buying residential real estate. Assuming we were reading the same article, that is.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I just puked on my desk.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@jesse:
Aren’t the mortgage rates equal for the whole Canada?
We’re still “severely unaffordable” compared to everywhere else nationwide, regardless of rates.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Original article:
http://www.fcpp.org/publication.php/3153
Has more detailed info to read and compares against worldwide cities.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Two things
1. They are looking at price to income ratios. Why are they ignoring mortgage rates? There is a very good reason.
2. Vancouver is only unaffordable to BUY. If you don’t mind renting or living in a cooperative, the city isn’t as bad as they make out.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Not only that, it is “unprecedented in modern history,” the group said.
Either we really are different or….. look out.
Time will tell.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:17 am
As XXXciting as you know what!