It is good value-- if you like the suburban lifestyle and are ok relying on a vehicle always. But I agree with the statement that millennials really don't like driving or taking the bus to work. Hence the areas closest to downtown and rapid transit should be insulated from price fluctuations for a long time yet.

Sure I love the idea of an attached garage, 2 floors, etc. But I value my time more and seek to avoid the stress from traffic, so I put the highest value on easy commuting to downtown and walk-ability score.

West Coast Express is fine, but only if you work 9 - 5, which is less and less common, especially as more tech companies drive employment in the region.

Port Moody to downtown by car, via Barnet and Hastings, is my version of torture :ahwow:

The new interchange at the bottom of the cut should hopefully improve traffic to/from Lynn Valley. And Translink has approved a North Shore east-west B-line and a 4th Seabus has been ordered. So improvements are coming. Not enough by any means, but at least it's something.

If they went over the knight st bridge then its well over an hour going northbound. It has been constantly backed up since they started construction at the marine exit. Even worse than before since people cut last minute and tie up traffic on both left and right lanes. no matter what day in time, i see a line up northbound.

I remember 5 years ago it was bad... Don't want to imagine that commute now.

Going home during rush over. I wanted to blow my brains. There was at least one accident a week. Then you had tools that raced down bridgeport exit, only to merge back on.

Ended up quitting that job. It wasn't paying me enough to sit in traffic for 2hrs a day.

I live near Metrotown (On Nelson and Kingsway) traffic isn't bad if you work early like I do. I work at 7am so I usually leave around 6:20am and still made it work with 5mins left (around science world). My co-worker who lives where I do but she starts at 8am said traffic is terrible lol. I guess the only way to beat traffic now is either work an early shift or late. However during weekends traffic is terrible after 10am till 8pm. I avoid traffic and people so I go grocery shopping I go before 9am on weekends to avoid the crowd.

OMG, this drive is bad especially since there really isn't any alternate routes.
Driving down Hastings, you will see some back up around Naninmo st, and again around Second Narrows and Boundry rd.
Traffic gets bad again on Barnett Hwy. as it goes from 2 lanes plus HOV to 1 lane and the HOV lane during rush hr.
St. Johns was backed up to Barnett due to sheer volume for Mundy st. and Ioco.

I used to work in Ladner and I know all that traffic pain. Mornings were fine with zero traffic at 6am but even leaving at 4pm it was atrocious. Starting with that god damn Massey Tunnel then a short burst to knight bridge and I sit there again. On a good day i'm lucky if its 45min- 1 hr. Most days it's 1.5 hrs and my actually driving time is like 20min. That's well over an hour of just bumper to bumper sitting in traffic. Some days I'm dazing off at the wheel. I too eventually quit that job and now I work in Burnaby 20 min drive and I'm making more than that job. Good fucking riddance!

Just wait till more apartments are being built and more traffic but the gov have 0 intention to fix the traffic issue other than closing streets and making them into bike lanes.

Burquitlam is an area similar to Metrotown - low rise multifamily is being replaced by high rises. It's a neighbourhood that was friendly to low income renters, particularly new immigrants and refugees. However like everywhere else in Metro Vancouver that is close to rapid transit, these people are slowly being pushed out and are being replaced with people who drive entry level luxury cars.

There is a huge strip mall anchoring the area right now, but you can be sure that it will be replaced with towers over the next 10 years. I used to own in Burnaby Brentwood before it really took off. Burquitlam reminds me of Brentwood in the mid-2000s - high rises surrounded by legacy development. Considering that people under the age of 35 seem to like high density, I think values in the area will be strong going forward. Once the Millennium Line extension is built to Arbutus, the value of having property on the Millennium Line will only increase. If anything, you can easily use the property as a rental property once you grow tired of the high rise lifestyle.

This stretch of road makes my blood boil

I used to live in the Burquitlam around 20 years ago. The area is nice! Burquitlam mall within 5min walk with safeway, shoppers, McDonalds, KFC, DQ. There is a also a park with swings, soccer filed, basketball court, baseball court, tennis court. I use to ride my bike all over the area during summer. Now is all towmhomes in that area with a few high raise. Very different now. I am sure traffic is terrible now, before than is still pretty bad.

A neighbourhood divided: homeowners vs. renters in Clayton Heights | Metro Vancouver


Not sure if anyone's seen this on the news but just came across this article in my feed.
Feel bad for the renters...that statement about renters not being tax payers takes the cake.

But at the same time, can't really blame the homeowners for being frustrated with the density. I remember back when i used to live with my parents in Strathcona before permit parking came into effect, it was fucking impossible to find parking between 8am and 6pm. And that's just one aspect. I'm not sure how Clayton Heights is set up, but when you get a guy saying he doesn't give a fuck about the renters and their kids, it must be pretty bad.

I don't know what the hell is happening with traffic flowing from Richmond to Vancouver this week. What is usually a 23 minute commute at 6pm for me is turning into 40 min. I waited to 6:30pm yesterday and it cleared up. It's only been this week for some reason??

Was crossing Knight Bridge (getting back into Vancouver) on Tues at around that time (6-ish) as well, and I couldn't believe how slow it was. Certainly there is volume, but even taking volume and the Marine off ramp construction into account, I dunno wtf could be the reason to cause the slowness.

I remember when they were building Clayton Heights about a decade ago. The density they built there is insane, with no proper public transit. Every house has 3 to 5 cars. It's like they tried to replicate the density of a Vancouver SFR neighborhood, but with suburban infrastructure.

Because they are fucking around with knight and marine intersection improvements

You always get what you pay for. Renting an illegal suite is cheaper because it's illegal - you have to factor in the risk of getting evicted. What's sad is that there should be more purpose built rental and subsidized housing for people like this single mother.

Vancouver turns a blind eye to illegal suites because almost 50% of residents who live in Vancouver proper are renters. Surrey is still largely home to homeowners.

I live in this neighborhood, this month is my 10th year here I bought when they were still developing and have watched it grow and change.

The parking is pretty bad, I actually parked in front of my house yesterday that was the first time in probably 6 months? I'm lucky in the sense that I don't have to park on the street, my wifes car and my motorcycle are in the garage and I can park my SUV in the parking spot next to our garage.

I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said that I'm the only person within a few blocks that doesn't have renters everybody on my block does, easily 95% of the homes in the area do.

The problem is where you have multiple rental situations. They rent out a coach house and then they rent out the basement and sometimes even the main house.

They are turning the houses into apartment buildings, it's kind of ridiculous so I'm not even mad the city is doing what it's doing. I feel bad for people who are getting evicted but that's on the landlords. The landlords who are renting illegally should be paying damages, moving expenses and what not of the people being evicted. I'd actually love to see some of these renters sue their landlords in cases where they had multiple suites and knowingly rented some of them out illegally, I think they have a case.

I have plans to sell and move next spring/summer into old Cloverdale, smaller house on a bigger property I think I'm pretty much done with this neighborhood.

But the tenants most likely the suite is illegal. So both party is at fault as well.

Do they though? How do you know which suite is legal and which isn't? They aren't the ones registering them or not registering them in most cases, the landlord is.

If I rent out a place it's my burden to be sure I'm not breaking the law. It's not like landlords are handing out copies of permits to renters or have them posted in the suite, it's impossible to tell which suite is registered as you have the option to register one or the other.

Ahh, the typical millennial couple in Vancouver. What would you do if you had their dilemma?

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...1/?service=amp

How can they possibly not move into a bigger place? As the baby grows, the family is going to very quickly outgrow their 1-bedroom apartment. They'd be much better off to find an "affordable" (to-them) 2-bedroom suite and buy it for good. Prices are only going to climb higher in the condo / townhouse market in the foreseeable future. And renting forever is probably not a good long term solution when they are only in their early 30's.

The typical millenals would not be making $110k at 32yo

I’d like to know how 2 people making 110k EACH cant manage to sort their finances out. That isn’t complicated.
Simple advice, spend what you need to spend now.
Worry about retirement in a smaller capacity. I’m all for planning ahead, but if you can’t figure out how to raise your family on your current income that’s the first thing to look at when you are at their point of preparation.

In reality, their condo is probably worth over 600K, even if it's in some run down building in East Van.

Daycare is expensive, but $2500 buys them a nanny. They need to get into a licensed daycare at 1400-1600. Go to Burnaby if they have to. Put that money towards their loans and increase their ability to borrow.

If I were them, I would sell the condo and buy a 2-bedroom stacked townhouse on the North Shore, Commercial Drive, or Burnaby Heights for $800K-$1 million and call it a day. They could easily afford it, given their salaries. Lots of these scenarios overestimate the amount of income needed in retirement. If you can pay off your home in 25-30 years, that's a big part of your security.

The typical millennial isn't, but the typical homeowning and child rearing millennial family in Vancouver is.