Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Few things drive people to older units

Price and Size

Also the construction in terms of sound barriers between units is far supperior. But people are, for the most part, dumb and would prefer to have a $150 stainless microwave and hear your neighbors over a foot of concrete and complete silence for 98% of the time.

Being new does not ensure your unit/building won't have problems. I'd say it's actually the opposite in most cases.

Either way, id buy in this same building again if I had to. Lifespan of a well maintained high rise can be up to 80 years if well kept. Eventually you'd just hope you're bought out at market value by a new developer etc

Older apartments tend to be bigger in size. In terms of the upkeep I think it depends a lot of the owners. Some buildings I been too is in such crappy and shit space becasue they owners voted not to fix anything and just keep pushing maintance back coz they don't want to pay (usually those buildings either have a lot of unit to rent or are full of seniors who doesn't/don't have the money to spend).

[imp>dom]

Hey guys. Where do you look for short term rental for apartment? Like 2-3 months? Most listings I can find is mininum 1 year.

[Nlkko]

craigslist in the sublet/temporary, vacation, sometimes main apt/housing area.

[imp>dom]

any place else besides CL?

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by imp>dom

any place else besides CL?

AirBnB?

[mikemhg]

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

Older apartments tend to be bigger in size. In terms of the upkeep I think it depends a lot of the owners. Some buildings I been too is in such crappy and shit space becasue they owners voted not to fix anything and just keep pushing maintance back coz they don't want to pay (usually those buildings either have a lot of unit to rent or are full of seniors who doesn't/don't have the money to spend).

I've always wondered about this regarding older apartments vs new one's, perhaps a resident expert can clarify this for me?


We've lived in both new buildings, and older concrete buildings, and I've always noticed those older concrete buildings have great sound proofing. What exactly changed with these new buildings? Shouldn't quality improve? Did concrete become vastly more expensive? I'm curious what building practices changed nowadays in relation to those older high rises built in the 80's and 90's? You would think soundproofing technology and build quality would improve given the advancements in expertise, and materials? Prices on condo units have gone up 10 fold, yet build quality has gone down significantly? Is this true, or are we old folks carrying nostalgia?

[Tapioca]

Originally Posted by mikemhg

I've always wondered about this regarding older apartments vs new one's, perhaps a resident expert can clarify this for me?


We've lived in both new buildings, and older concrete buildings, and I've always noticed those older concrete buildings have great sound proofing. What exactly changed with these new buildings? Shouldn't quality improve? Did concrete become vastly more expensive? I'm curious what building practices changed nowadays in relation to those older high rises built in the 80's and 90's? You would think soundproofing technology and build quality would improve given the advancements in expertise, and materials? Prices on condo units have gone up 10 fold, yet build quality has gone down significantly? Is this true, or are we old folks carrying nostalgia?

I'm not an engineer, but some guesses come to mind:

- less concrete between floors (why are ceilings now 9 feet when the actual buildings themselves aren't much higher today)
- floor to ceiling windows are standard
- less space behind the walls and less drywall
- laminate flooring with low quality underlay has become the norm instead of carpet and tile

[Hondaracer]

We have a corner unit and both our shared walls are solid concrete. This is almost unheard of in today's construction.

Drive by a new tower going up and have a look at the guts of the building. They now lean heavily on columns as opposed to walls for lateral support.

also slab tensioning and other building practices now have eliminated the need for full concrete support in place of cheaper steel and other engineering.

Unless someone is drilling somthing or drops something super heavy, I've pretty much never heard my neighbors in any direction

[Tapioca]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

We have a corner unit and both our shared walls are solid concrete. This is almost unheard of in today's construction.

Drive by a new tower going up and have a look at the guts of the building. They now lean heavily on columns as opposed to walls for lateral support.

also slab tensioning and other building practices now have eliminated the need for full concrete support in place of cheaper steel and other engineering.

Unless someone is drilling somthing or drops something super heavy, I've pretty much never heard my neighbors in any direction

One thing I never liked about my modern, corner unit apartment was the pillar in the corner of my living room. I guess that's the trade-off engineers and architects have to make for open concept floor plans.

I lived in my unit for 8+ years from brand new and as the building aged, it got progressively noisier. I started to hear people using the toilet and their appliances, like their dish washers or washing machines. I also heard people driving over sewer drains in the parkade from 6 floors up.

[Hondaracer]

It's amazing what travels through the concrete.

I was working at the wall center for a while doing some finishing work, a few times I had to drill into hallway corridor walls to mount baseboards etc.

If I was drilling on the 5th floor, it would sound like you were in the next room on the 25th

[jasonturbo]

Originally Posted by mikemhg

I've always wondered about this regarding older apartments vs new one's, perhaps a resident expert can clarify this for me?


We've lived in both new buildings, and older concrete buildings, and I've always noticed those older concrete buildings have great sound proofing. What exactly changed with these new buildings? Shouldn't quality improve? Did concrete become vastly more expensive? I'm curious what building practices changed nowadays in relation to those older high rises built in the 80's and 90's? You would think soundproofing technology and build quality would improve given the advancements in expertise, and materials? Prices on condo units have gone up 10 fold, yet build quality has gone down significantly? Is this true, or are we old folks carrying nostalgia?

The short answer is that concrete has climbed in price dramatically over the last 15 years. (Canadian prices are even higher than US prices)



I would imagine that build quality has decreased to some extent simply due to skilled labor shortages.

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by imp>dom

Hey guys. Where do you look for short term rental for apartment? Like 2-3 months? Most listings I can find is mininum 1 year.

www.suiteliving.ca

Know of the owner of the site. Ain't going to be cheap

[westopher]

I'm amazed people have noise problems in new concrete buildings. I live in a low rise wood from and have never heard my neighbours in the last 3 months of living here, and I know from seeing them on the balcony she has some yappy fucking dogs.

[MrPhreak]

Originally Posted by imp>dom

Hey guys. Where do you look for short term rental for apartment? Like 2-3 months? Most listings I can find is mininum 1 year.

Nobody wants to talk to you if you are not willing to sign for a year. A monthly rental through AirBnB would work.

[jasonturbo]

TD Bank raises mortgage prime rate to 2.85% - Business - CBC News

TD increases mortgage prime rate by .15%.

Big news in a sense, might spark an short lived increase in RE purchases as people try to lock in before rates climb higher.

Now that all banks must demonstrate the ability to quality at a traditional rate (for insured mortgages) perhaps there is less incentive to offer super competitive rates.

[originalhypa]

Originally Posted by jasonturbo

Big news in a sense, might spark an short lived increase in RE purchases as people try to lock in before rates climb higher.

I'm waiting to see what happens to those who committed to real estate within the last 12 months when prices hit their peak. Those are the folks who are going to see the double edged sword of lower values, and higher payments.

That said, in 1981 housing prices rose upwards of 280%. It wasn't until interest rates hit almost 20% that things really got bad. But even if they hit the 4% range, things are going to get very tight for homeowners.

[Mr.C]

Originally Posted by originalhypa

I'm waiting to see what happens to those who committed to real estate within the last 12 months when prices hit their peak. Those are the folks who are going to see the double edged sword of lower values, and higher payments.

That said, in 1981 housing prices rose upwards of 280%. It wasn't until interest rates hit almost 20% that things really got bad. But even if they hit the 4% range, things are going to get very tight for homeowners.

20% interest rates would cause a depopulation by way of people throwing themselves off of the Lion's Gate Bridge.

[Harvey Specter]

In depth article about our RE "bubble"...

Canada's housing market looks a lot like the U.S. did in 2006

[Carl Johnson]

Another day, another fear-mongering story. What initially caused the US real estate market to go into a normal correction was rate increases from the Fed which BoC is not considering due to low growth and inflation; however, what really turned a cyclical downturn into a free fall is all the financial derivatives that were purchased by Lehman, Washington Mutual, AIG, Fanny, and Freddie in order to take on a massive bet on the housing market and having those "investments" all go to zero essentially. Canadian Big Five does not remotely engage in any of those activities. Our banks are the most stable and boring in the world. And boring is a good thing.

[Nlkko]

Carl is correct.

TD called for a 10% but detached dipped pretty good already. Obviously not enough.

[Gululu888]

Figures for October sales is down but no where near 2012's. Any one know what caused the low sales for October 2012???

[MarkyMark]

2012 might be the lowest but 2016 is the most significant drop on that list when you look at the previous year, that's a huge difference.

[Spoon]

I could be wrong. But doesn't shadow flipping artificially inflate the number of transactions?

[hud 91gt]

How would is artificially inflate? I'm actually curious.

If it's recorded as a sale, it will also include the price which affects all sales statistics. Unless we are accounting for realtor fee's, it's just another sale. No?

[will068]

Originally Posted by Carl Johnson

Another day, another fear-mongering story. What initially caused the US real estate market to go into a normal correction was rate increases from the Fed which BoC is not considering due to low growth and inflation; however, what really turned a cyclical downturn into a free fall is all the financial derivatives that were purchased by Lehman, Washington Mutual, AIG, Fanny, and Freddie in order to take on a massive bet on the housing market and having those "investments" all go to zero essentially. Canadian Big Five does not remotely engage in any of those activities. Our banks are the most stable and boring in the world. And boring is a good thing.

Also, because a lot of home owners that were approved for loans in the US should not have been approved for loans. Add to that, all the deregulation under the Bush Admin so that sub prime and predatory loans were handed out like hot cakes.

Basically, the banks killed themselves. They go too greedy. If interest rates didn't spike up for these sub-prime loans, housing in the stated would not have bombed like it did. At the same time, they (banks) were handing out line of credits to these same individuals with terrible financial acumen and terrible discipline.

E.g. getting LOC from their mortgage that they were not supposed to be approve of since they did not have enough $$ to begin with. Then, spending that LOC money on liabilities like boats, cars, vacation trips etc.


Questions we have to ask ourselves:

Do we have that here ? (US 200ish Housing Bubble ?)

Well, if interest rates climb up, how many homeowners will have to sell because of affordability issues ?

Usually, BoC will follow the Fed in the US (historically anyways because we piggyback on the US Economy). However, the Canadian Economy on the aggregate level is terrible right now. Personally, I do not see BoC raising interest rates for a quite a while.