BC, economy, opinion, prices

Brand new house $130k

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111 Comments

What’s this, builders making a profit on new houses at $130k?

Apparently only in Vegas.

Yes, after a 60% drop in house prices builders are somehow still in business making new homes and selling them for under $200k.

“The single largest impact has been houses under $200,000,” Beville said. “Homes in the $130,000 to $190,000 (range) are getting a lot of love. The ones in the $200,000 to $300,000 are getting a little bit less.

Meanwhile in Vancouver even if you get the land for free it’ll cost you $270k to build a 500 sq foot laneway home.

Construction cost is high in Vancouver for a few reasons: permits, cost of materials, cost of labour.. but there’s really only one reason construction cost is so high: people are willing to pay for it.

It’s not like construction quality here is known for it’s quality (leaky condo crisis) and we even make use of unpaid illegal immigrant labour and still we pay these prices?

Ridiculous.

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Moivng to the States

Living is Vancouver is getting stupid now. Same job paid more in the states, houses are cheaper in the states, cars are cheaper in the states, pretty much everything are cheaper in the states as I found myself buying everything online now. Time to move instead of waiting for Vancouver to sink…

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patriotz

@Shangey G.:
“The ONLY reason why that $130k house is being built in Vegas, but costs $600k in Vancouver, is pure greed from bankers and developers.”

Nope, the ONLY reason is that buyers in Vegas are only willing to pay $130k, but buyers are still willing to pay $600k in Vancouver. Bankers and developers are greedy everywhere, but the former cannot lend more than someone is willing to borrow, and the latter cannot sell for more than someone is willing to pay.

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Shangey G.

Labor costs do NOT cost more here in Vancouver as opposed to Vegas. And if someone is telling you that, then it’s BS. If you look around, Vancouver is an immigrant city. High immigration means a high flow of surplus labor. Simple supply and demand economics means it would be cheaper. No one can convince me that somehow the rest of the world doesn’t know how to build houses, and that all the new immigrants to Canada have no idea how to build houses or help in their construction. The ONLY reason why that $130k house is being built in Vegas, but costs $600k in Vancouver, is pure greed from bankers and developers. It also doesn’t help that ruling elites allow a constant influx of people aka immigrants, which constantly puts a demand on housing. It doesn’t take a rocket… Read more »

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Anonymous

@jumpin in: ….If UBC was green, they would make condos affordable to the staff….

Come on, really? Who would pay for that subsidy? Are you suggesting that any business that wants to be ‘green’ should pay for or subsidize staff housing. Sorry, but that’s jut not feasible or sustainable (and likely not even green)

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Bilbo Bloggins

@mac:
The question is… will there be an free helicopter rides for people of Asian descent? I wouldn’t mind a free tour of the city even if we have to do a fly-by over White Rock.

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rp1

#104 @jumpin in: Iceland property rose 11% in 3 years, about 3.5% per year. I can understand fears about a property bubble emerging, but that rate of increase does not suggest bubble dynamics. I have no idea if prices are still obscenely high however. They really went nuts in Iceland.

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Bilbo Bloggins

Just to let you know a whole bunch of well paid workers are about to either lose their jobs or take a pay cut. You see many years ago a large BC Crown corporation sold their IT operations to an outsourcing company. In doing so they signed an agreement to purchase those same IT services back from the other company for the next 10 years. The agreement also stipulated a certain amount of cost savings over those 10 years. By in large this was achieved, however with noticeable decrease in IT service levels. Fast forward to now. Well the 10 years is up. The Crown corporation freely solicits RFPs for its future IT needs. Lo and behold, outsourcing company is undercut by another outsourcing company. The result a whole bunch of lay-offs. The second company now needs to staff up… Read more »

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jesse

@mac: See graph here and judge for yourself on inventory peaks:

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ZRH2YVR

On the Avg Condo Prices. Strange but yes – they seem to be up this month. My other comment however was that over an 18 month period – the condo price average is like a moving sine-wave and we merely at the top of an oscilating flat curve. 24 months of no real gains so it’s nothing. For detached – last week was noticably down and 2 days into this week, we are at the same point – down a noticable amount. If this week finishes in a place similar to where we are for the first 2 days, the 10-week moving average price will fall below the “low” of January and now take us back 11 months to Feb 2011. We should now see closer to 4% avg price decline this month compared to April. There have been noticable… Read more »

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Bally

@Anonymous:

By-law No. 2849, Section 17.6(f) prohibits non-resident parking in front of any property for more than 3 hours between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

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mac

Question for the statisticians on this blog. Is there a time when inventory usually peaks coming into July/August when the market is less busy? Or is it different from year to year? Also, tomorrow is the pre-sales opening on West. This will be a ginormous condo complex taking up the entire block between Manitoba & Columbia/1st & 2nd Ave and with over 40K square feet of retail space for all of us in the Olympic Village who are sick and tired of buying our underwear at Terra Breads. I hope they are busy as all get out as I definitely don’t want to be the only honky standing there looking at plans and asking questions like, “Do you think 2nd Ave will really be that noisy?” I also hope the up and coming “mortgage wars” lure enough buyers in there… Read more »

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condo watcher

Rokay–you’re basically right
3 hour limit in front of res property 8am to 6pm—-resident only sign enforced 24hrs 24/7

http://vancouver.ca/bylaws/2849c.PDF

Sec 17.6 (f)

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Village Whisperer

Regarding the 3 hour parking bylaw. http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/parking/admin/index.htm While all city streets are for public use, the City of Vancouver recognizes that priority residential street parking is needed on some residential blocks. Signs cannot be posted to reserve the space in front of a residental house for the sole use of its’ occupant, however, there are a number of other measures used to reduce outside parking pressures in residential areas. One of the measures that applies to most streets in Vancouver is the Three Hour By-Law. By-law No. 2849, Section 17.6(f) prohibits non-resident parking in front of any property for more than 3 hours between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. This by-law is meant to restrict commuters from regularly parking all day on residential streets. It is enforced on a complaint basis only, and usually only when a vehicle is found… Read more »

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Devore

@bums up2: Not that it’s really a weighty topic, but I used to work for about a year around 41st in Kerrisdale, maybe 2-3 years ago, and I parked on the residential streets, every day in the same space in front of some house, and so did everyone else, and no one every got any tickets, whether there is such a bylaw or not.

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mac

@van_coffee: Having said that, it would be nice if the guys at Vertex One could turn in some of their great returns of yesterday now-ish. I’ve held their Vertex One since late 2010 and it’s been frustrating.

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jumpin in

@canis
UBC sustainability plan is a joke. Or I should say an excuse so that parking lots are converted in private condo developments. Those condos are sold to people who do not work on campus, therefore the traffic has increased at least 2 folds in the past 5 years: very green policy, indeed 🙂

If UBC was green, they would make condos affordable to the staff.

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bums up2

Never heard of such a thing unless resident parking signs are posted. Care to show a link to this bylaw.

Many people don’t know this because a) they’ve never got a ticket b) they park in front of apartments c) they see so many cars parked on the street they just assume people randomly park on the street but this is not the case– otherwise they get tickets.

“Resident only” parking is 24/7 and not “three hours”. In front of someone’s house? You’ve got 3 hours. For apartments/townhouses I don’t think there’s any limit (unless there are signs indicating otherwise, e.g. resident only).

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b5baxter

I am going to hold until Thursday to post the official updated inventory graph but it looks like we will be in new record territory.

Not only are we at the 10 year highest point for this time of year we have now also passed the 2010 peak. Only 2008 had a higher peak and that didn’t occur until October.

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Anonymous

@Inventory: “Richmond MAY Sales Homes + Townhouse + Condo”

It looks like we will be close to pre 1999 sales levels. I wonder how long it will take for prices to get back to pre 1999 levels.

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Navin R. Johnson

It’s freaking beautiful stuff watchIng the listings pile on everynight. As Springsteen once sang…I’m goin’ down, down, down down…

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Anonymous

@Rokay: “The city has a bylaw that says that you can’t park in front of someone else’s house for longer than 3 hours. And it’s enforced. They ticket first and ask questions later.”

Never heard of such a thing unless resident parking signs are posted. Care to show a link to this bylaw.

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Inventory

Richmond MAY Sales Homes + Townhouse + Condo

1995 = 225
1996 = 292
1997 = 287
1998 = 222
1999 = 243
2000 = 344
2001 = 344
2002 = 470
2003 = 413
2004 = 475
2005 = 666
2006 = 619
2007 = 582
2008 = 424
2009 = 497
2010 = 440
2011 = 373
2012 = 234 **May 29

Sales at 1990s levels.

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CMHC hater

@VMD: that should be 29% drop in sell / list, IMO. 1 – 41/57

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Anonymous

The last best hope may be that low interest rates won’t save Vancouver RE prices.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but some of the new credit recommendations will be having to qualify at higher multi year rates, so for some, interest rates will “rise” regardless.

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