Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[blkgsr]

Originally Posted by hud 91gt

That’s pretty amazing. I recently tried to refinance my place, any extra money taken out would have been at today’s rate, blended into my old rate. Big bank fees suck. Lol. Was going to be 12k to get out of my current rate completely (32 months remaining).

ya i don't get it either...something doesn't seem right but that's what he said.

[inv4zn]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

It’s fine if you don’t need to leave, but the second you do it could be a total nightmare any time of day.

This is a bit misleading, I've lived in Queensborough (down the street from Peninsula) for almost 2 years now.

Yes, it COULD be a nightmare, but 98% of the time it isn't. The only real time is when you're trying to leave queensborough around 5pm, otherwise it generally isn't bad.

There's a stupid right turn, then right turn to get onto the Queensborough Bridge that's a clusterfuck but that's usually due to assholes who turn from the middle lanes.

I'll admit It does get bad when there's an accident, but that's the same everywhere. It was super bad when it snowed, but that's the same everywhere again.

It's not a bad place to live, although the train noises take a bit getting used to.

[cafe22]

Originally Posted by Ch28

Jesus...you guys weren't kidding. It's still up on their website.

The sales will tell you it's going to be built, they just don't know the timeline

Good luck getting approval from Transport Canada and Port Metro Vancouver.... Negotiation alone will probably be 5+ years.

[Great68]

Hard to believe that I grew up and spent the first 26 years of my life in Richmond, and I have never been to the Queensborough area other than driving across the bridge into new west.

[quasi]

Originally Posted by Great68

Hard to believe that I grew up and spent the first 26 years of my life in Richmond, and I have never been to the Queensborough area other than driving across the bridge into new west.

Lol, I can relate used to drive all the time when I worked on site so I would be all over the lower mainland all the time. UBC, Downtown, SFU, New West, Coquitlam, Burnaby, Richmond ect.... 2 tanks of gas a week.

Now I work 10 minutes from my home and I might leave Cloverdale/Langley and drive west of 168th maybe two or three times a year and West of the Fraser River one or two times a year for personal and maybe another 2-3 times for work. I use a tank of gas ever 3-4 weeks, during intial covid shut down it was 3 months.

[Oleophobic]

Hey guys

A number of pages back we briefly talked about land assemblies. I recently received two letters a month apart from two different realty companies/property agents: London Pacific and ReMax. The first (London Pacific) was to encourage us to contact them to get details on land assemblies which based on our zoning, allows for 10-story buildings to be built, so this is more of a general letter.

The second from ReMax indicated a neighbour had reached out about possibly selling. They need 4 houses in order to proceed.

Anyway, I understand and will certainly contact both to get a better understanding of what's happening as it's obviously still early in the process and I don't want to get my hopes up.

Just wondering if there are any pitfalls to avoid when discussing this stuff with the agents? Is it also normal to negotiate reimbursement of fees (like breaking mortgage, moving costs, renting costs, etc.)? I obviously want to maximize the value I get if this actually goes somewhere.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by cafe22

The sales will tell you it's going to be built, they just don't know the timeline

I know this probably goes without saying, but absolutely never buy on the promise of something being built. A future elementary school that was pitched as a selling point for a house my parents bought when I was in diapers (that's not why they bought there though) didn't end up opening until after I had graduated

[Teriyaki]

Well, everything in infrastructure construction or even planning (aside from Residential because thats where the money is at) moves at the pace of a dead slug here.

[Ch28]

Originally Posted by underscore

I know this probably goes without saying, but absolutely never buy on the promise of something being built. A future elementary school that was pitched as a selling point for a house my parents bought when I was in diapers (that's not why they bought there though) didn't end up opening until after I had graduated

A more recent example would be the elementary school that was promised for Olympic Village.

[JDMDreams]

What about the sky train to Langley

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by underscore

I know this probably goes without saying, but absolutely never buy on the promise of something being built. A future elementary school that was pitched as a selling point for a house my parents bought when I was in diapers (that's not why they bought there though) didn't end up opening until after I had graduated

the cynic in me is thinking: graduated....university

[fliptuner]

Imagine how long it would've taken if he dropped out.

[quasi]

Schools where I used to live went up like crazy.

I moved in around 2010, 2 new elementary schools in the first 5 years I lived there, 1 new high school to supplement the existing one and they are currently building 2 more elementary schools all this within a 5km radius.

To be honest they need it, the elementary school my son went to had the most kids of any elementary school in the province pretty sure it was pushing close to 1000 kids if not more.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by GLOW

the cynic in me is thinking: graduated....university

PhD

[Jonydakiller]

Originally Posted by Oleophobic

Hey guys

A number of pages back we briefly talked about land assemblies. I recently received two letters a month apart from two different realty companies/property agents: London Pacific and ReMax. The first (London Pacific) was to encourage us to contact them to get details on land assemblies which based on our zoning, allows for 10-story buildings to be built, so this is more of a general letter.

The second from ReMax indicated a neighbour had reached out about possibly selling. They need 4 houses in order to proceed.

Anyway, I understand and will certainly contact both to get a better understanding of what's happening as it's obviously still early in the process and I don't want to get my hopes up.

Just wondering if there are any pitfalls to avoid when discussing this stuff with the agents? Is it also normal to negotiate reimbursement of fees (like breaking mortgage, moving costs, renting costs, etc.)? I obviously want to maximize the value I get if this actually goes somewhere.

There is nothing much to discuss other than how much money you will be getting. Some residents play the long game and some just grab the money and run. Again, it depends how much money they are offering and what you think your land is worth. (if your neighborhood had something similar project like this in the recent years if not months, you can see how much the houses were sold to the developer and use it as a comparison)

The money is likely a cash deal meaning they will not be paying you extra for moving etc but if you are getting +1mil +2mil on top of your assessment, it is really not that much of a concern.

It doesn't hurt to see what those two agency willing to offer, but if it is approved to be rezone for 10-story building you will be leaning much towards the plus side on top of your assessment.

my SO does land assemblies for private investors so i hear a thing or two.

[Hondaracer]

Anyone renew their mortgage on a blended rate?

I ran some numbers today and with almost any penalty (our 14 months remaining is likely a $3000 penalty or so) it isn’t worth but if we can go from our current 2.4 to a 1.9 on 20 year amortization we save quite a bit and the payment goes down about $200 or so

[hud 91gt]

Your saying by dropping your amortization you can get today’s rate without penalty?

[Hondaracer]

If I’m able to re-mortgage with my current provider potentially. But as I said on a blended 5 year fixed

[hud 91gt]

So what is getting blended? Details please. Lol.

[Hondaracer]

So I’ve got 14 months left on a 5 year fixed at 2.4, originally 25 year amortization

By doing a blended rate renewal I will be keeping that 2.4 rate for the remaining 14 months but the remaining time on the new mortgage will be at the current rate. And by lowering my amortization hopefully I can get the best rate, 1.9 or so I’m thinking

And by doing this with my current bank I *should* avoid any penalties. Frankly I’m not entirely up on the whole situation however my mom writes mortgages for coast capital for the last 25 years and she kinda laid this scenario out for me and said it shouldn’t be a problem so we will see

[bcrdukes]

I'm getting a blended rate as well in a few weeks. I'm almost 3 years into a 5 year term, so the penalty to break my existing mortgage is way too expensive. Hopefully the interest rate stays low, when I renew next, but that's wishful thinking.

My rate was 3.65% (ouch) thanks to Donald Trump and the economic situation at the time, but c'est la vie. The blended rate will bring it down by a bit, but will certainly not make it worthwhile to break the existing mortgage. I think my penalty is somewhere between $12K - $15K.

[CRS]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

I'm getting a blended rate as well in a few weeks. I'm almost 3 years into a 5 year term, so the penalty to break my existing mortgage is way too expensive. Hopefully the interest rate stays low, when I renew next, but that's wishful thinking.

My rate was 3.65% (ouch) thanks to Donald Trump and the economic situation at the time, but c'est la vie. The blended rate will bring it down by a bit, but will certainly not make it worthwhile to break the existing mortgage. I think my penalty is somewhere between $12K - $15K.

On the exact same boat as you with a slight better 3.19%.

[Traum]

Given all the uncertainties (economic, political, COVID, etc.), I can't really see how BoC can possibly hike rates any any meaningful amounts, and they have said something along the same lines as well in their most recent interest rate review (if I am interpreting them correctly). Esp with COVID, I don't think the uncertainty that creates will be behind us until at least spring, if not longer.

But really, if COVID can be gone at the cost of us seeing some interest rate hikes, I'd gladly take a few points worth of rate increase.

[Tapioca]

While fixed rates remain the preference for a small majority of homeowners in Canada, it has been shown that borrowers who take variable rate mortgages come ahead over the long term (20+ years).

We are going with a variable rate for our next property for the first time after being homeowners for over 10 years. The penalties that most lenders charge to break a fixed rate mortgage are very high given the typical mortgage size these days. Also, I think we are in period of prolonged interest rate stagnation because whether we like it or not, COVID-19 is here to stay and a lot of businesses are never coming back. If interest rates rise sharply, breaking a variable mortgage is cheap in order to lock into a fixed rate mortgage.

[DA9ve]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

I'm getting a blended rate as well in a few weeks. I'm almost 3 years into a 5 year term, so the penalty to break my existing mortgage is way too expensive. Hopefully the interest rate stays low, when I renew next, but that's wishful thinking.

My rate was 3.65% (ouch) thanks to Donald Trump and the economic situation at the time, but c'est la vie. The blended rate will bring it down by a bit, but will certainly not make it worthwhile to break the existing mortgage. I think my penalty is somewhere between $12K - $15K.

i'm in the same boat. question is whats the rate that you would settle with to pay that penalty? how low will it go?