Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[supafamous]

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/na...260346105.html

3500sf, 5 bedrooms, needs some work and includes somebody living in the basement with no lease and you can't see the basement? That's at least a 2.5m house in Vancouver with 25 offers.

[supafamous]

https://www.rew.ca/properties/399701...licum-beach-bc

Somebody buy this and make it a timeshare for the rest of us.

Exquisite Property! You won’t want to miss this masterpiece of a home, nestled on your own private forested 5.69 acres in Qualicum North. The main home is a show stopper - a grand open concept gourmet kitchen, dining room and great room nestled under soaring cathedral ceilings with intricate millwork detailing. Entertain away with your 6 burner propane stove, huge granite island and seamless entrance to your incredible outdoor living space. This covered patio is perfectly located for you to enjoy your outdoor wood burning fireplace rain or shine, then take a dip in your hot tub & enjoy the sounds of the aquatic landscaped waterfalls. This property includes a 4 bay shop (2530 sq ft) ready for your car collection, plus a 4 post car lift. Attached to the shop is a fully contained 2 brdm 1222 sq ft guest suite. There is also a private driveway that leads you to a cozy 2 bedroom legal home (975 sq ft). Book your showing today to view this piece of paradise!

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

I think things will hit that fan more once that cool down period thing kicks in. I still don't see prices dropping 10% though maybe just staying flat for 6 to 9 months.

Unless bank of Canada fucks up the market and has to lower the rates again.

Or you know, a new covid strain hits and shit hits the fan again.

Originally Posted by supafamous

https://www.rew.ca/properties/399701...licum-beach-bc

Somebody buy this and make it a timeshare for the rest of us.

That looks properly amazing. If only I had a couple million burning in my pockets

[JDMDreams]

I welcome our lower rate overlords. yea we really dunno how things are gonna play out COVID is still hitting Asia pretty hard while apparently white people are immune from it

I guess we will see what happens when we have no iPhones or Tesla's to buy.

I see more negative, than positive in the world economy, as we will still have supply issues even if the war stopped today. It will take years for Ukraine to rebuild. If it ever even does get rebuilt

[donk.]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

I see more negative, than positive in the world economy, as we will still have supply issues even if the war stopped today.

Yeah the supply chain issue is only going to get worse, covid + that evergiven ship that got stuck really messed things up. So far it's not recovering, but getting worse, ports are snowballing worse every day, in regards to trying to catch up to "normal" demand. This supply chain issue alone is going to keep material prices up + delays on building = inventory issues = "low inventory"

Take a look at California dock, that place is a gong show. Meanwhile the trucking industry is slowly dying, shit hours, long days away from home, decent pay, noone wants to do it, the old farts are retiring and millenials are busy making YouTube videos about gender reveals and what color they painted their toenails in hopes of going viral instead of working

Originally Posted by Gerbs

My renewal new year is around $2,200 - 2,400 for $416,000 mortgage, up from $1,680

Were you on variable and went to fixed? Let's see these numbers bic boi

I'm up for renewal in a month, was at 1350$ at 2.54 fixed for 300k original loan
Looking at 1200$ at 2.0ish variable on renew for 240k.
Will probably set a 1400$ payment, incase rates double so I dont need to pay out of pocket after 5 years to make up the difference

[Alpine]

Originally Posted by GLOW

what's considered 'not a big mortgage' these days? serious question.

is $600k mortgage for a house between a married couple the threshold, and everything over "big"?

just trying to quantify my peasantry

Depends on the rates & down payment so let's use 3% & 20% DP for argument's sake.

3x your gross HH income is pretty easy to manage.
4x and it starts to get tight and you will likely need to start cutting back on vacations/other luxuries.
5x or more and I hope you have a rental income.

This also assumes working-class HH incomes (low-mid 6 figures) and you are not paying $700/month+ on a tesla.

[Alpine]

To add:

A family member is selling their metrotown condo. First weekend, 10 showings and 1 offer.
Was asking a bit over $1200/sqft. Offer came in at $1200/sqft. 1bd 1bth 1park ~550sqft.

If you are interested in buying in the coming year it's a good time to start your search. You'll have time to properly scope out units, buildings, neighbourhoods, and get a good understanding of what works for you over the spring & summer without having the pressure of having to place an offer after viewing the unit for 20 mins.

[JDMDreams]

^ I feel that's pretty good already 550 sq at $1200 = $660. There's only so much demand for one beds before it gets too expensive for buyers. It already doesn't support itself in rental income. I would take that $660 and run. At 20% down that's a MTG of $528 which is pretty high even for a couple for a one bed. That's $2114 a month, 2.6% var over 30y. So after strata, property tax, and utilities that's easy $3000 a month for housing cost alone.

[6793026]

^ i like the way you think. So many people do not consider the strata, property tax, phone bills and the misc.

[donk.]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

There's only so much demand for o̶n̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶d̶s̶ any property before it gets too expensive for buyers. It already doesn't support itself in rental income.

Fixed

And there are 0 properties in GVRD that support them selves as rentals at 20% down purchased today, doesn't matter if it's a house or condo

[lowside67]

Originally Posted by Alpine

Depends on the rates & down payment so let's use 3% & 20% DP for argument's sake.

3x your gross HH income is pretty easy to manage.
4x and it starts to get tight and you will likely need to start cutting back on vacations/other luxuries.
5x or more and I hope you have a rental income.

This also assumes working-class HH incomes (low-mid 6 figures) and you are not paying $700/month+ on a tesla.

I think this is a pretty good guide actually if you mean mortgage figures, not home prices. Our mortgage was just under 3x our HH income and it felt like a fairly non-event in terms of huge monthly payments.

I changed jobs, taking a pay cut, bringing that same mortgage to about 4x our HH income and it was a noticeable difference. Still fine, but had to pay a lot more attention.

My earnings are starting to get back to where they were and I am finding the pressure is off a bit

Mind you this is at 2.5% interest - you'd need to revisit that chart if rates were significantly higher.

-Mark

[Hondaracer]

Definitely have learned some lessons in the 10 years or so of having a mortgage now

I think if the time comes where I can get back into that 2% or lower 5 year fixed I’ll probably just remortgage our place and pump it all back into investments. My wife is kind of risk adverse so she’s always been hesitant to go on variable etc. (which seemingly was the wrong decision recently lol) but definitely should have taken more advantage of that cheap money

[ssjGoku69]

Originally Posted by Alpine

5x or more and I hope you have a rental income.

[HonestTea]

Does anyone know what the zoning bylaws are in Coquitlam? Family friend wants to build a smaller detached in the back.

[sdubfid]

Originally Posted by HonestTea

Does anyone know what the zoning bylaws are in Coquitlam? Family friend wants to build a smaller detached in the back.

City websites have zoning maps and most have detached secondary suite criteria.

[SSM_DC5]

Originally Posted by HonestTea

Does anyone know what the zoning bylaws are in Coquitlam? Family friend wants to build a smaller detached in the back.

A laneway home? Coquitlam has allowed those for 5+ years.

[HonestTea]

Originally Posted by SSM_DC5

A laneway home? Coquitlam has allowed those for 5+ years.

Not exactly? The backyard doesn't connect to an alley. He just has a house with a decent sized backyard and wants to essentially build another house on his backyard and (probably?) sell it.

Originally Posted by sdubfid

City websites have zoning maps and most have detached secondary suite criteria.

What zoning code would it be? RS-1?

[PeanutButter]

Met up with an old buddy for lunch today, let's call him John. He told me about an interesting/sad interaction between him and his mom. (he said it was okay to share the story)

Background of my friend.
- Asian, 38 y/o
- Wife, two toddlers
- Owns a house in Van.
- He has a commission-based job, if he doesn't work, he doesn't get paid
- Makes ~$130k annual (household income just under $200k)

He was at his parent's house and his dad asked him if he was working the following Monday since it's not a stat and John said he took the Monday off. In fact, he took every long weekend off the entire year and made the comment jokingly that life's too short to work any long weekends.

His mom chimed in and said she doesn't understand why John's wasting his potential. She said that it's their fault that he's so lazy and complacent because they gave him a good life and provided too much for him. Apparently, in his mom's eyes, he's just lazy and has no motivation to be more than he is. They did help him out with the down payment for his house.

John stressed that he would rather work less and spend more time with his family than work harder and grind to make more money. His mom said he's still young and he should be working harder to provide a better life for his family. She pointed out that he has two kids, how are they going to have a good life if he continues just doing what he does now. She said he needs to work more now when he's young and when he's older he can rest.

Then the mom said that she was disappointed in him because he's not motivated and that she expected more from him. He said that comment hurt him.

John admits he could work way harder and make way more money, but his work-life balance right now is too good. But, now he's questioning whether he is in fact getting complacent and if his mom is actually right?


I told him that our parent's generation is only focused on making money, working hard, and getting to the final destination later in life, whereas, our generation values the journey and puts more focus on experiences over money. This is probably because our generation is more privileged than our parents. I'm thinking his mom is salty that John hasn't really seen struggle the way she struggled growing up and that's not sitting right with her.

In any case, he's kind of fucked up right now because he's contemplating his whole damn life. I mean, his life is pretty damn cushy right now, we both agreed on that.

[Hondaracer]

“You’re enjoying life too much”

What an insane concept in society that you’d rather the people you love and raised grind for an unknown future than enjoy life and family for the opportunities presented

[Alpine]

Ah, typical Asian parenting lol.
Honestly, your friend John should know better by now. He should have enough life experience now to understand the pros/cons of each lifestyle and the types of pressure many asian parents (especially tiger moms) put on their kids lol.

[Hondaracer]

You’re just in a freakin matrix goo pod anyways #yolo

[Alpine]

Originally Posted by HonestTea

Does anyone know what the zoning bylaws are in Coquitlam? Family friend wants to build a smaller detached in the back.

https://www.coquitlam.ca/562/Zoning-Bylaw

[Euro7r]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Met up with an old buddy for lunch today, let's call him John. He told me about an interesting/sad interaction between him and his mom. (he said it was okay to share the story)

Each is entitled to their own opinion and way of life. If his parents believe that is the way life should be, then as long as they are happy then it's fine to do what they feel is ought to be right. However, they should never put that expectation on someone else.

I mean what the hell is not working hard enough and what is considered "enough" in their parents eyes. $250K? $500K income? Even if your buddy reaches these goals, his parents will say he can make more, it's a never-ending mentality.

[westopher]

His parents honestly sound more envious that he gets to use his intelligence to do well instead of just straight up back breaking.
I’m very thankful my mom and grandparents understand the value of happiness over money. Of course, money is a big component of that, because a massive source of stress is financial struggles, but if you aren’t stressed about money, there is absolutely no reason to “grind” harder.
No one is on their death bed and says man I wish I spent less time with my family and more time at work.

[whitev70r]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

In any case, he's kind of fucked up right now because he's contemplating his whole damn life. I mean, his life is pretty damn cushy right now, we both agreed on that.

That's not a bad thing, every once in a while, you need to be pushed to think about your 'whole damn life' seriously. He's got to look in the mirror ... if you both agree that his life is pretty cushy then, maybe dial it up just 1 notch ... maybe not to the degree that parents want him to but sometimes all criticism has some truth to it.

If after thinking about things and he feels more convicted that this is the kind of life he wants (healthy balance between work, family, and enjoying life) then this incident has just helped him confirm his conviction of life.

I think it was a good life conversation ...