Vancouver Condo Info

BDK posted a link to this article in Vancouver Magazine titled ‘sitting out‘ which shines some light on the hidden world of real estate bears and bulls that lurk online in the lower mainland.

Its quite a good article, outlining the basic points that go back and forth on both sides of the Vancouver boom/bust argument and profiling a local couple that recently sold:

In 2002 Felicity Stone and Jim Patton stumbled onto the real-estate mother lode, trading up from a house in rural Langley to a thoughtfully designed home on two acres in the Elgin Chantrell area of South Surrey. Patton, a communications consultant, and Stone, who works in public relations, were happy to pour work and money into the place, expecting to live there the rest of their lives. Then their outlook began to change. Much as they loved the 1962 gem, they also saw what nearby property was selling for. In August 2007 they decided to list, and by November they’d accepted $1.616 million—a 240 percent increase from the $475,000 they’d paid a half-decade earlier. Now they’re renting a house in the Bayridge area of West Van, paying $2,500 a month while they watch the market and wait for prices to drop.

They even link to several of your favorite blogs (VancouverCondo.info included) - my only complaint is they seem to have munged up the link to this site and they left out three interesting and useful sites which I’ll link to here:

Paul Boenisch and his amazing REBGV statistics

Mohicans analysis at langley-financial-planning

and the interesting new Vancouver RE anecdote archive

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Public transit has an impact on property values (both positively and negatively) so isn’t it only right that the good folks at Translink get some of that boom-time real estate money?

The new TransLink board is looking at real-estate partnerships to solve the problem of spiralling costs for Metro Vancouver’s burgeoning public transit system, says board chairman Dale Parker.

In an interview with The Province, Parker said there are opportunities for TransLink to cash in on the added real-estate value created by rapid-transit lines and station hubs, and TransLink should look at them.

“One of the things we’d certainly like to look at is what are the opportunities for TransLink to benefit from the real-estate development that goes on around the stations,” Parker said following a Monday night public hearing on the property-tax issue. “There’s going to be increased density — can we participate and benefit in the sense of partnerships in real estate?”

Yes. Can we please? Apparently we can!

The board was created in November by the B.C. government, which abolished the old governance structure and a TransLink board made up of elected municipal politicians.

“The new legislation gave us greater scope for participating in ownership around the lines from what we were able to do before,” said Parker.

And what a perfect time to have public transit speculate on real estate! After scrapping a very unpopular tax on owners of non-residential parking spaces the Translink board is looking to make up the 18 million dollars elsewhere:

Rather than slash the $900-million-plus budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1 by $18 million, the board is expected to levy the property tax in some way that stings homeowners and business owners equitably.

Currently, business owners are taxed at a rate five times that of a homeowner for properties of comparable value.

“One thing the board does want to do is focus on what other sources of revenue, certainly other than property tax and fare, because those two may very well be close to being maxed out,” said Parker. “The public is demanding a much larger expanded system and we’re going to have to figure out how to pay for that.”

I’ve got an idea! How about pull-tabs or scratch and win? Hey! You never know!