Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[unit]

wow 14000sf lot

[quasi]

Originally Posted by unit

wow 14000sf lot

Common on that street, my parents had a house just down the street on the same block, most of the lots were around that size. Was shitty to mow as a teenager living at home with a shitty mower, the year I moved out my dad bought a ride on and a year after that he hired a gardener because fuck it mowing sucked lol.

It was a really nice neighbourhood in the 90's.

[GLOW]

waited for you to leave before buying a sweet ride-on mower

i guess he was using it as a tool for you to build character

[BIC_BAWS]

Originally Posted by quasi

Common on that street, my parents had a house just down the street on the same block, most of the lots were around that size. Was shitty to mow as a teenager living at home with a shitty mower, the year I moved out my dad bought a ride on and a year after that he hired a gardener because fuck it mowing sucked lol.

It was a really nice neighbourhood in the 90's.

I have less than half of that lot (I'm at 6630sqft) and I still hate mowing the lawn lmao. I wonder if cordless will change my life dramatically. The damn cord gets unplugged half the time lmao. Having a bag attachment would definitely help though.

[Hondaracer]

A corded mower.. what are ya using a 90’s black and dekker bro come on lol

[hud 91gt]

Hahahaha

I just bought my in-laws a new cordless mower because the odd time I cut their lawn I pull my god damn hair out with that cord. Cordless is quite nice. Ended up going 40V Ryobi, mower, weed eater and blower. So far pretty happy.

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

A corded mower.. what are ya using a 90Â’s black and dekker bro come on lol

i actually WAS using one of these until i burned the motor trying to do the 1st cut of the year (like 6" tall ). it was my dad's and he didn't use it anymore, i remember using it as a kid to mow his lawn

still ended up with a crappy plastic corded mower to get the job done

[quasi]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

A corded mower.. what are ya using a 90’s black and dekker bro come on lol

When I was a kid my dad had one of those when we first moved here at the house he rented, just had to run the cord over a few times and he upgraded to gas.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by hud 91gt

Hahahaha

I just bought my in-laws a new cordless mower because the odd time I cut their lawn I pull my god damn hair out with that cord. Cordless is quite nice. Ended up going 40V Ryobi, mower, weed eater and blower. So far pretty happy.

I got me a 18v 16" Ryobi and I love it. More than enough juice in 1 battery for my ~1000sf lawn and it's quiet enough that my 3 year old can walk alongside and help and people can still talk to each other in the yard. Will never go back to gas even though I'd love to own a Honda mower.

[waddy41]

Originally Posted by hud 91gt

My realtor just told me the unit in our complex which was listed more or less peak value, just sold for 30k over asking after sitting for many weeks for sale. I don’t know what’s going on. Hahaha.

Depends on which building and area. I think Mt. Pleasant and OV are still in high demand, especially for condos > 500 sqft

The one that I don't get is Avenue One by Concord Pacific (1768 Cook), units selling for 1400/sqft and up

For example: https://www.bccondosandhomes.com/lis...68-cook-street

Sold $705,200, 16 DOM, 495 sqft, $1424.65/sqft, it's not even facing the water

Especially after reading all the drama with concord and terry hui, I will never buy a unit in a concord building

[Gerbs]

A friend of mine is renting that Avenue One condo, a 2BR for a little over $4k/month.

The entrance makes you feel baller. The entire condo opens into a massive solariums that's good for bbqs / outdoor hosting. Entire unit looks balling. Makes me want a 2BR there facing the waters. But it's like $2M for a equivalent condo.

[EvoFire]

A bit of I guess public knowledge, at least for those who are with TD. I called my mortgage guy because we are getting close to trigger rate. FYI we are variable with TD at 3.35% now and trigger rate is 3.86% and anything greater than a 0.5% hike will hit it.

I asked him what happens. He said there's a few things that could happen, either the bank recalculate your payments so you are close to or equal to amortization term, the bank tells you to lump sum it until you are at term, or you refinance. You may or may not get a choice depending on the difference, he can't tell because this is unprecedented in his career.

He told me to bump my payments up, which I was doing anyways. With TD at least, if your payments are bumped up, your trigger rate gets moved up as you are no longer at as high a risk. He said I can lump sum it, but to lump sum to the point that would pull my term back in would be a big 6 figure payment. If I had 6 figure cash lying around I wouldn't have the mortgage to begin with.

I asked him about rate hikes, he said TD is expecting another 0.75 hike in Sept. But last time he said they expected a hike in July that would last until end of the year so I would take with a grain of salt.

Last time I talked with him about current rates, it was 3.2 for var 5.2% for fixed. This was before the 1% increase, so a new mortgage now is 4.2/6.2 now?

[Special K]

How did you calculate lump sum to be 6 figure? Do you mean lump sum for the full 5(?) year term?

Interest rates went up quickly in the last 6 months. The shortfall on principal shouldn’t be anywhere near $100k+ over 6 months, unless your monthly payments are really high like $20k+ monthly.

If it’s based on a full 5 years variable at trigger rate or higher, then yes $100k-300k easily over 5 years to match principal draw down and amortization.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by Special K

How did you calculate lump sum to be 6 figure? Do you mean lump sum for the full 5(?) year term?

Interest rates went up quickly in the last 6 months. The shortfall on principal shouldn’t be anywhere near $100k+ over 6 months, unless your monthly payments are really high like $20k+ monthly.

If it’s based on a full 5 years variable at trigger rate or higher, then yes $100k-300k easily over 5 years to match principal draw down and amortization.

I'm also with TD and they have a lump sum calculator and yeah, it's 6 figures now to pull the mortgage back to 30 years (mine peaked at 52 years before I increased my payments). In fact, if I pay my max lump sum allowed (15% of the original mortgage) I still wouldn't pull it back to 30 years, I'd still be at ~33 years.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by Special K

How did you calculate lump sum to be 6 figure? Do you mean lump sum for the full 5(?) year term?

Interest rates went up quickly in the last 6 months. The shortfall on principal shouldn’t be anywhere near $100k+ over 6 months, unless your monthly payments are really high like $20k+ monthly.

If it’s based on a full 5 years variable at trigger rate or higher, then yes $100k-300k easily over 5 years to match principal draw down and amortization.

Basically what supafamous said. I was paying over half into principle before the rate hikes. The interest has gone up so much that I'm down to something like 1/5 of my payment into principle now and my 30 year term became 55 year before I upped my payments to pull it back.

[Traum]

Holy shxt... 55 year term! Suddenly my 18 - 19% higher payments (compared to Jan) don't seem so bad anymore...

FWIW, I've confirmed with my mortage person that trigger rates do not apply in my case because my mortgage payments go up and down along with the interest rate while the length of the mortgage remains the same.

[Hondaracer]

Ouch.. so we sold our appartment by lougheed mall back in 2016. Back then it was known that in the next 4-5 years the windows would have to be replaced (1986 build, all non-instulated metal frame windows)

Our unit was suppose to cost between 8-10k to replace everything, this was known by the buyer etc.

yesterday i was back in the building and was speaking with a woman who has the same type of unit we had. After the investigation into the replacement of the windows they realized a portion of the wall there is not up to code and as a result needs to be replaced.

The special assessment for my unit type went from 8k to 47 lol fuck..

[68style]

^ Wow... Dodged a bullet kimosabe

[d1gbick]

is anyone tracking 1bdrm condos in GVR? are there price drops in that area similar to what we are seeing with SFH

[supafamous]

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2022/07...-already-made/

OTTAWA – An Ottawa family is packing up their belongings and moving to what they hope will be their “forever home,” but they’ll be bringing a slightly smaller pile of cash with them from the sale of their old home.

“It’s tough. It’s really tough,” said Martin Sheed. “Two months ago we could have sold our home for 1.6 million. But today we only got 1.4 million dollars for a home we bought 15 years ago for 350k.”

“The fact that we won’t have to pay a single dollar in tax on our million dollar profit helps ease the pain a bit I guess.”

Like many other sellers in Canada, the Sheeds assumed they would be able to sell their house for literally whatever they wanted, but were taken aback when a price correction allowed buyers to do things like “negotiate” or “check to see if the entire basement is covered in black mold” before offering.

“I know we didn’t technically ‘lose money’ in the sense that we ‘made a ton of money for doing absolutely nothing but being landed gentry’ but it still hurts knowing that other landed gentry made more for doing nothing than we did,” said Martin’s wife Natasha.

To make ends meet, the family will be renting out a bedroom in their new 8 bedroom, 4 bath mansion that they bought entirely with the money they made from their old home’s equity.

“We’re basically living hand to mouth,” added Martin.

The family may even be forced to sell 1 or 2 of their income properties to pay the bills, but they hope to be able to avoid that by raising the rents on their existing tenants.

At press time a GoFundMe set up to help the Sheeds deal with their terrible financial loss had received 0 dollars in donations.

[SkunkWorks]

Originally Posted by supafamous

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2022/07...-already-made/

This must be in response to the 'actual' article

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...rket-1.6531055

An Ottawa family is packing up their belongings and moving to what they hope will be their "forever home," but they won't be bringing nearly as much cash with them as they'd hoped to get from the sale of their first house.

"We figure we lost about $150,000," said Robert Hawkins.

"I know we didn't 'lose it' because it was not ours, right," said Natalie Hawkins. "But to not earn as much as other people have earned three weeks earlier … that's a lot of money to miss out on."

To make ends meet, the family will be renting out an upstairs bedroom in their new home.

"And that's something … we've never considered," said Natalie Hawkins.

As home prices drop across the country, sellers are having to come to grips with the reality that sky-high sale prices aren't guaranteed.

The couple bought the four-bedroom, three-bath detached home in Barrhaven in 2015 for $350,000.

They've since finished the basement, landscaped the backyard, put in a fence, a deck, a patio, and stainless steel appliances.

Recently, they spotted a slightly larger home being built just up the street that had a two-car garage and a bigger yard — perfect for the couple and their two young children.

"It looked like our forever home," said Natalie Hawkins.

"And just the way that the market was, we could sell this house for maybe not too much of a difference to get to the new house price. That was our expectation."

They put down a $100,000 deposit and prepared to sell their first house.

They had watched their next-door neighbour sell a mirror-image model of the same house for $890,000 and hoped to fetch a similar price for their own home.

But then market conditions changed abruptly.

They considered keeping their first house as a rental, but securing an additional mortgage proved difficult. They hired a realtor as the value of their home continued to plunge.

A buyer was found and the sale closed. The price: $740,000.

While the family did lock in a sizeable profit from their first home, they are now facing what they expect will be nearly a decade of extra mortgage payments to make up the difference in value between that house and their new one.

For those who've been keeping a close eye on the housing market, a correction was always in the cards.

"Things went up too far. They went up too fast," explained Garth Turner, a financial adviser, author and a former member of Parliament.

"It was inevitable we would see the pendulum swing back. And here we are."

'You can't have an asset go up 30 or 40 per cent and stay there,' says financial adviser, author and former MP Garth Turner. (CBC)
Statistics published by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) for June 2022 show the seasonally-adjusted national Home Price Index (HPI) dropped by 1.9 per cent.

A look at the national average house price excluding the country's two priciest markets — Vancouver and the GTA — shows the average house price in Canada came down by $114,500 relative to June 2021.

The ratio of sales to new listings came in at 51.7 per cent, its lowest level since January 2015, meaning a fairly equal balance between supply and demand.

Pace of real estate slump quickens, with sales and average prices down
Turner explains that a unique set of circumstances led to a temporary spike in home prices.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted people to cocoon at home and spurred interest in having larger houses on bigger lots in the suburbs.

Combined with exceptionally low mortgage rates — some could briefly be had for under two per cent — and an influx of government money through pandemic relief programs, this perfect storm caused prices to soar by 30 to 40 per cent, said Turner.

He expects it will take several years for the housing market to rebound. He recalls the major housing crash of the early 1990s.

"It took 14 years to recover," he said. "Three years to go down; 11 years to come back up to the same level."

"We're only halfway through" the current decline of home prices, he predicted.

Real estate agents, who have spent the past few years managing rapid sales and submitting bids over the asking price, are now having to explain to prospective sellers that things have changed.

"For the average person who was expecting to get $700,000 (selling) a townhouse in the suburbs, that's just not the case anymore," said Nicholas Crouch, a broker at ReMax Hallmark Realty Group.

Crouch pointed to the number of days spent on the market as a key indicator of cooling conditions. That number has risen from just five days at the peak of the market to nearly 20 days now.

He adds that buyers now have time to shop around and submit offers with conditions, something they "haven't seen in years."

Robert Hawkins expected a market correction, but said that it came at a uniquely bad time for the family.

Even after the setbacks they've endured, he's keeping things in perspective.

"We're very lucky to be in the position we're in," he said, adding that they would not have been able to afford their new home without the accumulated equity from their first house.

[Liquid_o2]

Oh my god I can't believe that is actually real. What kind of world do we live in.

[Gerbs]

Originally Posted by d1gbick

is anyone tracking 1bdrm condos in GVR? are there price drops in that area similar to what we are seeing with SFH

Less desirable 1BR's are dropping maybe 5 - 10% but still 10 - 15% above 2020 lows though. Overall prices are dropping but cost to buy if you need to pay 4.7 -6% interest is higher.

https://condos.ca/burnaby/jewel-ii-6...-1203-R2712589, been watching this building/area.

[donk.]

Originally Posted by d1gbick

is anyone tracking 1bdrm condos in GVR? are there price drops in that area similar to what we are seeing with SFH

Yes, prices are dropping for sure.

I just sold my condo in mt pleasant a month ago, older building, 550sqft.

2-3 months ago, right before the rate hikes, identical units, with similar renovations, were selling for 15-30k more. (500k range units)

Today, the same units are selling for an additional 15-30k less, than I sold mine for.

In Port Moody, my neighbor sold his 7xx sqft unit for 600k also just before the hikes, similar units now being posted at 500k.

Buying power is sharply decreasing, no surprise

[rb]

Subject removed for my 3bed townhouse last Friday. Got list price which is the highest in the complex to date beating a comp last sold in April by 20k. However, its still the cheapest 3bed in my area and the comps in the complex have always been low as barely anyone sells.

Still a bit anxious til the deal fully completes but its also bittersweet letting the place go