Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[Gerbs]

Originally Posted by AzNightmare

How do you define "nice" car?
Age of the car?
Car brand?
Performance?
MSRP?
etc.

Anything rare or relatively fun to drive.

Average person, probably original MSRP > $45 - 60K,

[Eff-1]

I always wonder how increasing supply will actually help affordability.

I understand the basics of supply and demand. But if the cost of land and construction in Metro Vancouver just way too high to begin with, the final selling price will almost never be "affordable" to most, unless the governments heavily subsidize it, which they will never do.

Look at Capstan Rd, No 3 road, and even Oakridge Mall. They are building 2000 units at Oakridge alone, right next to rapid transit and a mall underneath! But when all of them are priced at $1200 psf, how is that supposed to help affordability, I have no idea.

[JDMDreams]

I don't think there ever will be affordable, due to capitalism and economy, if you were to spend $ to develop housing or run a business you want to make as much money as possible. You're not gonna run a business at a loss, it's always gonna be luxury or premium. Not gonna be poor, and welfare only. That's just how the world works, it's not a charity.

[donk.]

Originally Posted by Eff-1

I always wonder how increasing supply will actually help affordability.

I understand the basics of supply and demand. But if the cost of land and construction in Metro Vancouver just way too high to begin with, the final selling price will almost never be "affordable" to most, unless the governments heavily subsidize it, which they will never do.

Brand new homes are not supposto be affordable in a tier A city
Nor are old homes, because of the extremely high quality of life here. Can't have everything easy in Vancouver

If someone wants an affordable new house, go to a country/city where there is not 200 people involved for building it

Spoiler!

city planners, bylaws, legal, safety, permits, environmental, workers, etc, before any of you start raging that there aren't 200 people involved in building a house

[Hondaracer]

This is no exaggeration, in Surrey across from my parents house a Buddy guy builder is almost at drywall stage for FIVE homes in the time one in my Vancouver neighborhood does not even have its tyvek wrap done.

It’s fucking crazy

[SSM_DC5]

Anyone in the concrete industry? How bad is it right now to get a hold of?

[underscore]

I agree, aside from some mid-range condos built 15 or so years ago everything I've seen built here is high end, cram the largest house/most units you can onto a property kinda stuff. Nobody is building anything entry-level or even mid range anymore, so I'm not sure how any of it would help.

And then to top it off one of the few cheap places left in town has been bulldozed and is being replaced with a bunch of rentals units for more shitty tourists.

[Tapioca]

Everything is marketed as luxury these days, but after the stone counters, is most big box developer product luxury these days?

For context, the houses in my neighbourhood were marketed as luxury homes 30 years ago and even today, you can actually still see luxury in terms of the materials and features: tile roofs, stucco exteriors, multiple fireplaces, curved walls, 17 foot ceilings, spicy kitchens, ceiling inserts, curved staircases, skylights, real wood kitchen cabinets, granite counters, marble bathroom counters, and so on.

Nowadays, most homes are built with asphalt shingles, vinyl siding, baseboard heating, flat walls, MDF cabinets, cookie cutter tile designs, etc. Sure, a new home may have a European brand faucet or a gas range, but aside from that, are they actually luxury homes in the traditional sense? They're luxury in price only. If you were to try to sell a condo today without stone counters, it would sit for months.

[Manic!]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

This is no exaggeration, in Surrey across from my parents house a Buddy guy builder is almost at drywall stage for FIVE homes in the time one in my Vancouver neighborhood does not even have its tyvek wrap done.

It’s fucking crazy

That's because you have 10/15 guys from India working on a house from sun up to sun down 6 days a week.

[hud 91gt]

https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/britis...95251.amp.html

More spec tax in other municipalities. Fuck me. My wife and I have an empty lot purchased for retirement plans. Can’t afford a house here, but we could afford a lot. Just can’t afford to build. So now we just get nickle and dimed for the next 25 years lol. First world problems.

I thought the tax was actually a lot higher. How is .5% tax going to effect any housing crisis lol. Just taxing for the sake of taxing. I had heard this may be coming to our area, but disregarded as I couldn’t rent an empty lot. But looks like I was wrong, that’s not an exemption. Only bonus is, it looks like it’s tax deductible?

[Acura604]

Ugh....wtf


https://www.rew.ca/properties/425846...nue-burnaby-bc

[Hondaracer]

Seems like a better buy in a lot of ways than a townhouse?

[JDMDreams]

I saw that listing today but didn't click it, literally a town house is bigger and has more parking. I wonder what the back story is, the city planner sneezed and drew that lot?

[donk.]

I would place bets, that in the near future, microhomes will be the most common built SFH.

I would happily buy a 500-900sqft SFH. Just turn the back yard into a 1000sqft garage lol

Wait im poor, scratch all of that

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by Acura604

Ugh....wtf


https://www.rew.ca/properties/425846...nue-burnaby-bc

I suppose it's cool that the city actually let someone build on that lot. In Vancouver you wouldn't be allowed to do it. Better a house than nothing. Note that the house next to it is also skinny.

[westopher]

I love that house. If I could build a 2 car lengthwise garage it would be the perfect home for us, but preferably somewhere other than burnaby.

[Alpine]

If building a new house and resale value is a consideration, then you always want to build the largest house that you can build on the lot. Increases your resale value and decreases your average $/sqft to build. Win win (unless you want a massive yard)

[quasi]

Originally Posted by Alpine

If building a new house and resale value is a consideration, then you always want to build the largest house that you can build on the lot. Increases your resale value and decreases your average $/sqft to build. Win win (unless you want a massive yard)

Large yard is a double edged sword. I love my yard and sometimes I even like maintaining my yard but some day's I really don't lol. With my old house and 3,000sf lot there really wasn't much yard maintenance at all.

The biggest thing is privacy, I went from a fishbowl in my last house to an almost completely private back yard with massive cedars blocking out 2/3's of my neighbours and a yard large enough to throw a ball for the dog.

Some day I'll cash out and retire somewhere else and someone will come in, bulldoze my house and build a 6,000sf house in its place.

[Hondaracer]

Most people don’t want a big yard anymore in the lower mainland it seems, even though that is kind of the reasoning behind a single family home. People couldn’t care less about a nice garden or a lawn. Just walk around most Vancouver neighborhoods and a lot of them are unkept. Maybe people “kinda” tidy up the front but walk down back lanes and a lot of people just have shit ecerywbeee. It’s embarrassing

[Tapioca]

^ Maybe it's because you live in East Vancouver, which is still a mix of low-income immigrant families and tech bro households?

In my neighbourhood, landscaping services are pretty common for a lot of homeowners with larger lots.

[Spoon]

Huge reason I chose my current home is because it only has a few garden beds. All other areas are covered with tarp and rocks. Just taking care of the garden beds and weeding was a ton of work. I can't imagine having to mow the lawn too.

Detached isn't for everyone, not just from a financial perspective. The time commitment is unreal and I made sure that what I was purchasing was low maintenance since I'm not particularly handy. I told my kids, once they move out, I'm happily prancing back to condo living.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

^ Maybe it's because you live in East Vancouver, which is still a mix of low-income immigrant families and tech bro households?

In my neighbourhood, landscaping services are pretty common for a lot of homeowners with larger lots.

I think that’s part of it but I also see it a lot in my parents neighborhood (Fraser Heights)

Not to make this some sort of race based thing lol but 100% growing up there it was overwhelmingly Caucasian. A mix of newer and older homes but there were some really great streets where every single home was nicely manicured, beautiful boulevard trees etc.

Fast forward and now the neighborhood is like 75%+ Korean and it’s starting to get run down AF. People have homes with fascia basically rotting and falling off, little to no maintenance on trees and shrubs, MAYBE just a half ass attempt at cutting the lawn every 2 weeks then run back inside and shut the blinds until you go out again.

It’s probably a cultural thing but there’s also -zero- sense of community anymore. My buddy bought his dads old house in Fraser heights and had some long term neighbours who used to chat fairly frequently help out each other etc. now he doesn’t even know who lives next door because it’s basically drive car into garage, shut door, never see anyone come and go period. It’s virtually the same for every single house around him lol

[westopher]

This can’t be true because no one in Vancouver has room for a car in their garage. Too many boxes of 30 year old newspapers and childrens toys that “may be worth something some day” from the 1980s

[Qmx323]

Super neighbourhood dependent.

My parent's block in central Richmond is a pretty even mix of all ethnicities, and there are maybe 2 or 3 houses on the block that don't maintain their yards to the "block standard"

A friends block two blocks to the east is maybe 80% Asian? A decent chunk of properties have replaced their front grass lawns with small stones.

A few completely ignored yards, but still inhabited, yeah it sucks to look at but it ain't my house lol.

In terms of community... There are a few households here that have chats outside but they've also known each other for 30+ years. I shoot the shit here and there, and with my next door neighbour we kinda bring in each others garbage cans over the years.

Would I miss this if they moved away? Maybe, I'd still help the neighbours with the garbage bins every now and then, but it would probably stop if not reciprocated.

Interesting how tech has connected us further, yet also lead to the closing off of these kinds of small "everyday" conversations.

[Tapioca]

An unkept lawn, rotting fascias, and stained stucco, but Teslas and BMW hybrids in the driveway or on the street with white painters' buckets. Those are the priorities these days.