Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[donk.]

Like anywhere else in tbe world, property will always outrun income

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

world class landscape maybe
world class city is defined by a real economy and culture

lol if anything covid as a metric only hurts bc: sit at home for 2 years while shops closing for good

i know some who wanted to move here from taiwan are now like

Given the choice I’m fairly certain the vast majority of the global population would be picking Vancouver over Taiwan.

“Global” cities like NY, LA, London etc. Are looking like absolute hell holes to be living in right now.

If you think places closing in Vancouver are bad, it’s probably a drop in the bucket to what’s going on in these “world class” places with consistent full blown lockdowns.

[mikemhg]

I still don't understand how people try to compare HK, SF, NY to a tiny city like Vancouver.

We don't have a single major Fortune 500 company with it's headquarters here, our economy is simply not inline with property values. People don't move to Vancouver to start their career, if anything people leave Vancouver to advance their career prospects in a given field. We are still primarily a tourism, crown corp, and resource market economy.

I think it's vastly underestimated the impact of dark money on real estate in this city. You essentially have a ton of offshore cash coming in with an otherwise toothless government that has historically encouraged it (BC Liberals). That combined with a stable infrastructure, good education and health care system, Vancouver is an extremely viable place to dock your money and keep it safe from government hands. That's a major contributor to the situation we're now dealing with here.

I've always said someone needs to do a well funded documentary about Vancouver and the BC Liberals, and what such policies can elicit long-term to a city.

[Alpine]

Originally Posted by mikemhg

I still don't understand how people try to compare HK, SF, NY to a tiny city like Vancouver.

We don't have a single major Fortune 500 company with it's headquarters here, our economy is simply not inline with property values. People don't move to Vancouver to start their career, if anything people leave Vancouver to advance their career prospects in a given field. We are still primarily a tourism, crown corp, and resource market economy.

I think it's vastly underestimated the impact of dark money on real estate in this city. You essentially have a ton of offshore cash coming in with an otherwise toothless government that has historically encouraged it (BC Liberals). That combined with a stable infrastructure, good education and health care system, Vancouver is an extremely viable place to dock your money and keep it safe from government hands. That's a major contributor to the situation we're now dealing with here.

I agree. I think it's pointless to compare Vancouver to the top cities in economic terms. That's not what Vancouver is about. IMO, the best way to compare Vancouver is to compare it to the cities where all the wealthy families come from. Vancouver is cheaper, you can own land, we have clean air and a mild climate, we have huge ethnic communities, great food, recognized schools (primarily because they are North American), free health care, free govt support, etc. And for those reasons, we are one of the top cities in the world for the wealthy (particularly for Asian wealth).

[JDMDreams]

^^ I think it's also we don't have stupid presidents and guns

[Hondaracer]

I think when that discussion is has regarding not having those big employers, or tech firms, etc etc. A lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners are simply discounted in that same breathe where I believe a lot of the wealth in Vancouver is made independently.

The wealthiest people I know are all business owners of companies they founded. Then you have smaller companies like consultants, trades, restaurantuers, and international business who is based here in Vancouver.

As well, of the little “old money” I know, they virtually all stay in Vancouver for the long haul. They may have homes elsewhere but their primary home is here and this is where they return to/retire and die here. Some of these people have increased their wealth by 10’s of millions simply by owning houses on the west side since the 90’s. A lot of that money remains in the lower mainland.

Some of My friends who may not have the education or ability to get those 150-200k jobs over their lifetime have been grinding out a life in Alberta for a bit and then leveraged that into work here with a nest egg to build on, or a home they purchased and built equity into.

It seems like a broken records but for better or worse we seem to beat ourselves blue in the face with this discussion of “there’s no jobs here!!” But people just keep making it work. Not to say that’s the best scenario but this is a place people are willing to make sacrifices to live here.

There might not be a tech job paying 200k a year for apple, but if you were an electrician with a 3 man company, no reason why you can’t be pulling in 200K+ a year in your business

[KayC]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

I think when that discussion is has regarding not having those big employers, or tech firms, etc etc. A lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners are simply discounted in that same breathe where I believe a lot of the wealth in Vancouver is made independently.

The wealthiest people I know are all business owners of companies they founded. Then you have smaller companies like consultants, trades, restaurantuers, and international business who is based here in Vancouver.

As well, of the little “old money” I know, they virtually all stay in Vancouver for the long haul. They may have homes elsewhere but their primary home is here and this is where they return to/retire and die here. Some of these people have increased their wealth by 10’s of millions simply by owning houses on the west side since the 90’s. A lot of that money remains in the lower mainland.

Some of My friends who may not have the education or ability to get those 150-200k jobs over their lifetime have been grinding out a life in Alberta for a bit and then leveraged that into work here with a nest egg to build on, or a home they purchased and built equity into.

It seems like a broken records but for better or worse we seem to beat ourselves blue in the face with this discussion of “there’s no jobs here!!” But people just keep making it work. Not to say that’s the best scenario but this is a place people are willing to make sacrifices to live here.

There might not be a tech job paying 200k a year for apple, but if you were an electrician with a 3 man company, no reason why you can’t be pulling in 200K+ a year in your business

Speaking of tech, for the last 2 years, I was helping out a SF tech company start an office here in Vancouver. We hired about 25 people in the office, ranging from new grads to senior software engineers. In terms of their salaries, new grads were getting $110k base salary (not total comp), with senior software engineers getting $220k base. Intermediate engineers with about 4-5 years of experience were all getting around $160k base.

There are more SF tech companies coming to Vancouver as well. Even with salaries like above, it's still a lot cheaper compared to SF, especially with exchange rate.

[Tapioca]

^ Glad someone in the industry is chiming in.

I would argue that the impact of escalating tech salaries (and other industries that have had to compete for the same pool of talent) is finally manifesting itself in local real estate market activity as the pandemic has essentially restricted activity to a local market of buyers.

There is a small, but growing class of 30-somethings with high household incomes in this region of the province, which the doomsayers seem to ignore.

[Hondaracer]

The trend of exodus out of Silicon Valley/California may have a positive impact in the local work force as well

[EvoFire]

Tech salaries have been on the rise for the last decade. I'm making more now in tech than I thought was possible/peak when I started my career. And I'm nowhere near the top in terms of earning potential.

Still too broke to buy a house though.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Given the choice I’m fairly certain the vast majority of the global population would be picking Vancouver over Taiwan.

“Global” cities like NY, LA, London etc. Are looking like absolute hell holes to be living in right now.

If you think places closing in Vancouver are bad, it’s probably a drop in the bucket to what’s going on in these “world class” places with consistent full blown lockdowns.

a large chunk of the western population still confuses taiwan for thailand, cant speak mandarin and some even believe it's a puppet state , new zealand is also a bit isolated

most places are shit holes right now with all the restrictions including canadian cities like in quebec so the point is covid is an unknown criteria for desirability and you also need to account for jobs and climate, education, healthcare, crime rate

[chinook79]

anyone else ever had issue with this before?

I sold my property back in Dec, everything completed and done with, money received... fast forward a month later, I get a email from buyer's lawyer asking us to sign some more documents. Turns out, that the property is still in my name as idiotic buyer's lawyer thought it was good idea to make adjustment to signed document after it was signed and when it was submitted to title office, the document got rejected for it being tempered after it was signed.

Now I need to find my own time to head over to lawyers office to sign the document again.. grrr...

[roastpuff]

So I got a call last night around 8-9PM from my realtor for a last-minute showing for noon today. My wife and I busted our ass cleaning up and polishing up everything last minute to make the apartment show-ready since our last showing was before Christmas. Too short notice to take time off from work as well, we are both WFH so we timed our lunches to let this person have a look.

The other people came in, spent like 3 minutes, and fucked off. Apparently they wanted a higher view (from a 3rd floor apartment). What a fucking waste of time.



Can you not even look at the listing pictures, which clearly shows the view from the balcony/windows?

[rb]

Dont know if its just me but after reading about the salaries for software engineers a few posts up... i feel like drinking heavily and am thinking about all of my failed life choices lol

[ntan]

Originally Posted by rb

Dont know if its just me but after reading about the salaries for software engineers a few posts up... i feel like drinking heavily and am thinking about all of my failed life choices lol

I don't think any of us expected this. I've been in the industry for ~10 years now, and I remember landing my first gig as a new grad with a total comp of 100K+ (in Canada) and it felt like I scored the jackpot, but now new grads are pulling in 100K base lol.

Several friends in their 30s are picking up the textbooks and getting into CS/SW Eng. I didn't graduate with a CS/SW Eng degree either. There was enough resources online 10 years ago, and even more now, so it's never too late.

[JDMDreams]

Well you can tell them to f off?

Originally Posted by chinook79

anyone else ever had issue with this before?

I sold my property back in Dec, everything completed and done with, money received... fast forward a month later, I get a email from buyer's lawyer asking us to sign some more documents. Turns out, that the property is still in my name as idiotic buyer's lawyer thought it was good idea to make adjustment to signed document after it was signed and when it was submitted to title office, the document got rejected for it being tempered after it was signed.

Now I need to find my own time to head over to lawyers office to sign the document again.. grrr...

[bcedhk]

Originally Posted by chinook79

anyone else ever had issue with this before?

I sold my property back in Dec, everything completed and done with, money received... fast forward a month later, I get a email from buyer's lawyer asking us to sign some more documents. Turns out, that the property is still in my name as idiotic buyer's lawyer thought it was good idea to make adjustment to signed document after it was signed and when it was submitted to title office, the document got rejected for it being tempered after it was signed.

Now I need to find my own time to head over to lawyers office to sign the document again.. grrr...

Why are you doing it on your own dime and time? It's the Lawyers mistake so tell them to send the documents by courier or have the lawyer setup something mobile.

That or ask him to compensate for your travel and time.

[chinook79]

Originally Posted by bcedhk

Why are you doing it on your own dime and time? It's the Lawyers mistake so tell them to send the documents by courier or have the lawyer setup something mobile.

That or ask him to compensate for your travel and time.

I am inches close to make this as difficult as possible for buyer's.
I just wanted to get this over with and help them out of good-will, but I got an email from my lawyer stating that buyer's agent is aggressively calling the office to expect new documents be ready by today (they notified us of their error yesterday)
Not only that, they somehow get a hold of my dad who doesn't even speak English, has nothing to do with the property, and not even in Canada and shoved some legal document to his face.

I sent him a warning email not to harass anyone ever again if they want my cooperation.

[Eff-1]

Originally Posted by chinook79

I am inches close to make this as difficult as possible for buyer's.
I just wanted to get this over with and help them out of good-will, but I got an email from my lawyer stating that buyer's agent is aggressively calling the office to expect new documents be ready by today (they notified us of their error yesterday)
Not only that, they somehow get a hold of my dad who doesn't even speak English, has nothing to do with the property, and not even in Canada and shoved some legal document to his face.

I sent him a warning email not to harass anyone ever again if they want my cooperation.

Do this on your own schedule, tell him to buzz off.

I would consult with your lawyer to confirm whatever hijinks the other lawyer did had no chance of causing you any legal or financial liability down the road (i.e. property tax, income tax, etc). If necessary, consider taking the other lawyer to CRT to recover your extra legal fees (you don't need to pay your lawyer to file in the CRT) and then consider filing a complaint with Law Society of BC. Call me crazy but a lawyer forging a document is shady AF.

[PiuYi]

What's compelling you to sign this document other than goodwill? I'd ask for a $2000 compensation for your time, if not then they can screw off

[Hondaracer]

Yea sounds sketch af, and if they fucked up on their end then eat a dick imo.

You should not have to take a second out of your day if you did everything correctly

[GLOW]

harassing dad? ya they just burnt up any goodwill i'd have...they can deal with my lawyer and their dime...

and hearing the talk of $100k+ salaries for sw guys... before i switched industries a while back, i was making $30's as a sw/firmware guy

i'd ask to pass the bottle rb but i think i'm gonna need one entirely to myself

[donk.]

Originally Posted by roastpuff

So I got a call last night around 8-9PM from my realtor for a last-minute showi.....

I feel your pain, but in the same time:
They can waste more of your time by lounging around for 20 minutes only to leave

And welcome to selling a property?? Yeah so you spend 2 hours every few days before showings, in the end you profit xxx,xxx$ for "20ish" hours of labour

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by ntan

I don't think any of us expected this. I've been in the industry for ~10 years now, and I remember landing my first gig as a new grad with a total comp of 100K+ (in Canada) and it felt like I scored the jackpot, but now new grads are pulling in 100K base lol.

Several friends in their 30s are picking up the textbooks and getting into CS/SW Eng. I didn't graduate with a CS/SW Eng degree either. There was enough resources online 10 years ago, and even more now, so it's never too late.

Now I feel like I need a bottle. I've toiled around for a few years and I'm only in my early 100k.

I didn't grad with a CS/SW degree either. Economics degree and I'm doing software lol.

[Gerbs]

Originally Posted by rb

Dont know if its just me but after reading about the salaries for software engineers a few posts up... i feel like drinking heavily and am thinking about all of my failed life choices lol

What do you do?

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Now I feel like I need a bottle. I've toiled around for a few years and I'm only in my early 100k.

I didn't grad with a CS/SW degree either. Economics degree and I'm doing software lol.

My tech friends are starting to hit $100k TC and no CS degree this year despite Covid. They have 2 to 4 years of experience which is so sick. I wanna say they're an outlier but I don't know anymore haha. It reallly motivates me to consider making a switch after CPA exams and find my niche in fin-tech or accounting/finance software. I'm projecting that I'll join the low 100k club around 6ish years of experience and CPA. Which is hella long compared to the CS grads that are pulling in $150k TC first year at Amazon/Shopify lol.