Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[carsncars]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

I commuted from Burnaby to Richmond for a year, I had my car, and I hated every minute of it. The gas, the traffic, the idiots.

I had a co-op for 4 months in Richmond.

I am of the opinion that the Coquitlam to Richmond commute is potentially one of the worst in the Lower Mainland. You're affected by:

• Highway 1 inc. Port Mann issues (although sometimes beneficial)
• New Westminster inc. the hell that is Columbia/Front and the Patullo & Queensborough
• 91A/91 inc. any issues on Alex Fraser

3 problem spots in a single commute. I think my commute ranged between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours.

[Presto]

I did the Coquitlam to Richmond commute for 5 years back in the early 2000. It was fucking brutal back then, and I'm sure it's magnitudes worse, now.

[quasi]

I remember when my best friend and coworker bought a house in Chilliwack 20+ years ago because it was affordable. We then started a 1 year project out at UBC, lol that commute, fuel bill and vehicle wear.... but such a cheap mortgage haha.

He would leave at 430am to best the traffic in the morning and sleep in tbe parking lot before work.

[Eff-1]

Everyone has different value in life, depending on what matters most to you.

For years, I lived downtown. My commute was anywhere from 5 - 15 mins walk, depending on my job at the time. I could socialize after work as much as I wanted without having to worry about driving/taxi, etc. On a rainy day I could take an EVO home for $5. Anything I could ever possibly want was walking distance. I swore I'd never give that up.

Now we live on the North Shore and we couldn't be happier.

She goes for walks in the evening on her own (something she'd NEVER do downtown).

We love our view of downtown (had no view before) from our balcony.

It has a smaller city feel. Today I wrote to the City about something and a very nice guy wrote back to me within the hour with a detailed reply! Whenever we've had to call the RCMP (once for a loud party and once for a B&E) they attended super quick and made sure we were taken care of. VPD would have given zero fucks.

Parking in the neighbourhood is free when we have visitors before covid.

ICBC insurance is less expensive.

Our Save on Foods is massive and way less stressful. Big parking lot and free parking wide spaces, lots of space inside too (used to shop at the Save on Foods on Cambie with underground pay parking, tight spaces and cramped aisles, getting in and out quick was never easy).

Yes the downside is when the bridge gets snarled, there is gridlock. Most days (before covid) I'll take the seabus to work. It's way less stressful than driving, I chill out with podcasts and watch videos on my phone. Then I connect to the rapid bus.

At some point we just aged out of downtown. We are happier now surrounded by other couples and young families, instead of before when it was mostly younger people spending most of their time going to bars and clubs, something we don't do much anymore.

[quasi]

Originally Posted by Eff-1

Everyone has different value in life, depending on what matters most to you.

I totally agree with that. I know for me being close to work is really important to me, I live in Cloverdale and would never consider a job West of the Fraser River unless it was fuck you money. Both myself and my wife have a 10 minute commute and like many I'll probably never work from the office full time again, mostly working from home with the occasional office day.

I've done the commuting thing when roads were a lot worse then they are now, not sure how many of you remember what highway one was like in the 90s but you could get out and walk faster than that traffic flowed through Burnaby/Coquitlam East bound in the afternoon. I'm never doing bullshit like that again.

[rb]

If you value your time and you work in Vancouver, don't ever consider living in Port moody/Coquitlam center area.

Grew up and lived in the area for 38 years. St.johns street sucked during rush hour 15years ago, is many times worse now, and will only suck even more with all of the new construction. When I worked in yaletown 2 yrs ago, It would take me 20+ mins just to crawl through traffic from the end of the barnet hwy to the newport area which is only about 4 kms. This was after just battling traffic for an hour or more from whichever site I was coming from in Downtown, Richmond or North Vancouver.

Those moving here better be damn sure that WFH is a permanent thing for them.

[HonestTea]

Originally Posted by carsncars

I had a co-op for 4 months in Richmond.

I am of the opinion that the Coquitlam to Richmond commute is potentially one of the worst in the Lower Mainland. You're affected by:

• Highway 1 inc. Port Mann issues (although sometimes beneficial)
• New Westminster inc. the hell that is Columbia/Front and the Patullo & Queensborough
• 91A/91 inc. any issues on Alex Fraser

3 problem spots in a single commute. I think my commute ranged between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours.

Did this commute as well for a year. Absolutely terrible commute and there's always a jam/accident somewhere.

[JDMDreams]

This is why I think the area Burnaby South of metro or New West mainland is a good location. You're in the middle of the map and there's SkyTrain to get into Dt. Two options to get into Richmond. And really there isn't much you can't get around metro.

[van_driver]

Originally Posted by Alpine

If it's around burquitlam / north road / maillardville, then there's redevelopment potential for added density. Lots are getting assembled for multifamily or divided to build smaller detached houses (~3000-3500 sqft with or without laneway) that are selling for ~1.8-2.0M.

If it's a random SFH lot in central Coquitlam away from these areas, then here's the math. New 5500sqft homes cost ~1.1M to build. Newly completed homes (~2018-2020) are selling between 2.5-2.8M. Some builders are trying to presell homes for 3.0-3.5M now.

Not even in the redevelopment plan, just SFH lots in Central Coquitlam. One on Linton (a semi busy street) just sold for $1.4m. The new ones sold in the last 3 months in Central Coquitlam are still at $2.5m or under. The ones in Harbour Chinese are between $2.5m to $3m.

But yeah the ones listed now are asking between $2.3m and $3.5m, wonder if they will sell for that much

[Alpine]

Originally Posted by van_driver

Not even in the redevelopment plan, just SFH lots in Central Coquitlam. One on Linton (a semi busy street) just sold for $1.4m. The new ones sold in the last 3 months in Central Coquitlam are still at $2.5m or under. The ones in Harbour Chinese are between $2.5m to $3m.

But yeah the ones listed now are asking between $2.3m and $3.5m, wonder if they will sell for that much

I think the ones asking for 3.5m are a little bit out there but we're going to keep seeing homes in the 2.3-3m range sell fast.

1189 BRISBANE AVENUE blows my mind. I know it's Harbour Chines, and the math works out, but a developer paid 1.64M for this lot!

[blkgsr]

Originally Posted by carsncars

I had a co-op for 4 months in Richmond.

I am of the opinion that the Coquitlam to Richmond commute is potentially one of the worst in the Lower Mainland. You're affected by:

• Highway 1 inc. Port Mann issues (although sometimes beneficial)
• New Westminster inc. the hell that is Columbia/Front and the Patullo & Queensborough
• 91A/91 inc. any issues on Alex Fraser

3 problem spots in a single commute. I think my commute ranged between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours.

oh many i worked at steveson and 6th road like 7 years ago and i live 2 mins from coquitlam center. it was horrible then i can only image the horror show it is now.

a couple years ago i thought i was getting moved to a job in richmond, i started looking for a new job. no way i was driving out there again.

i lucked out and got a job site 10 mins from home so i didn't quit. changed companies last year and stayed within 10 mins (knew where i was going before i took the job) and hopefully in the area for a long time to come.

[fliptuner]

When I was living in South PoCo and working at the shipyard in N. Van, I told my boss that I wouldn't start between 7-10am and wouldn't get off between 3-6pm - it just want worth it.

[van_driver]

Originally Posted by Alpine

I think the ones asking for 3.5m are a little bit out there but we're going to keep seeing homes in the 2.3-3m range sell fast.

1189 BRISBANE AVENUE blows my mind. I know it's Harbour Chines, and the math works out, but a developer paid 1.64M for this lot!

No mortgage on the property so I guess the seller was able to afford to let it sit till they got the price they wanted

[unit]

i work in surrey these days and i'm starting to get the urge to settle down there. i grew up in surrey and always wanted to get out of surrey, and moved to vancouver, richmond, new west, and coquitlam since. now even my 17m commute feels too long when you're at work 6-7 days a week. if i need to do small tasks at work on the weekend, it would be nice to just drive less than 10m to get there.

surrey also is a lot cheaper, you can get a 20yo TH for like 600-650k.. once you hop over to coquitlam i'm looking at like 800+ for the same thing (i dont even like coquitlam), and then i'm even further from work. the downside to that is that those surrey THs seem to appreciate really slowly compared to other cities, so as a primary residence but also an investment, i can't tell if it's just lagging behind or if it's stuck where it is due to location (that being said these same THs were prob like 400k 6-7 years ago).

now i value space, driving distance to work, and living around good ethnic grocery stores more than i value being close to my friends when they host gatherings. driving the extra 15m to make it to a friends house once every week or two seems like a sacrifice that makes sense to me.

the only neighbourhood that i prefer that's also maybe only 10-12m away is dt new west, but there are no affordable townhouses there that have garages. also i lived near the train before and i vowed not to ever again.

[bcedhk]

Originally Posted by van_driver

No mortgage on the property so I guess the seller was able to afford to let it sit till they got the price they wanted

If that's the case, they are letting it go too early. Coquitlam's Southwest Housing Review will mostly allow this area to be zoned RT-1 or RT-3 in about 2-3 years. Once zoning changes, that large lot will go for 2+ million easily.

[JDMStyo]

Presales and market's been crazy!

Brentwood
Tailor sold out. $1000-1100/ft Brentwood by tracks
Alaska 1BR all gone - 2BR left 10% maybe
COL tower 2 80% sold
Jinju going fast - lower towers left on some public but stock's low maybe 20-30%. VIP rounds took alot

Metrotown
Concord Metro $1300-1400/ft sold 200+ units in March 2021. what bad markets?
Sussex seeing some even price units coming on for assignments - $550k 1BR. better deal than Concord Metro IMO...
BOSA Park Central House $1100/ft for near Central Park (patterson Skytrain) area, I think this is a better area IMO. Not being directly at Metro I'm ok with
Telford mostly sold out. $900-1.1M 3BR low floors and 2BR avail

Busy spring/summer ahead - hope no one's bidding up market too much, advice is to pace yourselves. Getting emotional during a bidding war is a surefire way to pay way too much.

Stay rational - job market's bad still (improving). Rest of Canada has NOT seen housing prices jump back up. BC/ON has been unique but long term fundamentals are still same - we are reliant on foreign immigration.

RBC has been warning of some overheated house/RE prices and I think that's fair.
Murmurs of capital gain tax on (gasp!) Primary Residence will HUGELY damper the market.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/capital-...-rbc-1.1581775

[G]

Originally Posted by bcedhk

If that's the case, they are letting it go too early. Coquitlam's Southwest Housing Review will mostly allow this area to be zoned RT-1 or RT-3 in about 2-3 years. Once zoning changes, that large lot will go for 2+ million easily.

My parents are choked, their street is literally one street behind the new Townhouse density zone

[HonestTea]

Is there a place to see current/proposed zoning changes?

[cafe22]

Originally Posted by HonestTea

Is there a place to see current/proposed zoning changes?

Most municipalities have their in-house maps that shows current zoning and land use designations.

Proposed zoning reviews and studies will be found in the Community/Neighborhood Planning section. e.g. https://vancouver.ca/people-programs...-planning.aspx

[van_driver]

Tear down on E 49th asking $1,315,000 got 10 offers, 9 of them subject free :|

50 year old home in Central Coquitlam asking $1.3m received 8 offers, went $120k over asking subject free.

Can any revscene real estate experts predict when this madness will slow down?

[JDMDreams]

^ well how else do we buy Tesla's and type rs

[donk.]

It will never slow down, if your hoping for a crash, it will never happen

And when the doomsayers say a "crash" is finally in progress, what they actually mean, is just be a 10% scale back, and the following year it will come right back up 20%

[JDMDreams]

Look at supply, there's no supply. Look at the costs, cost to build has gone up like 30% on materials alone. Rates will be low for the next 2 years. What do you see that will cause a 20% drop?

[Traum]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

Look at supply, there's no supply. Look at the costs, cost to build has gone up like 30% on materials alone. Rates will be low for the next 2 years. What do you see that will cause a 20% drop?

You forgot to mention the money supply. Given the COVID debts that various countries are amassing, printing more money than ever to dig themselves out of debt seems like a certainty in the next few years. With Vancouver and Toronto, in particular, I'd also expect a flood of Hong Kongers returning to Canada, with July and Aug this year being the popular months. A lot of these people will have quite a bit of money, and there will obviously be a need for housing.

[bcedhk]

Rich get richer, poor gets poorer.

The only way I see houses going down is if the government steps in and imposes price ceilings. But that's never gonna happen.