scrubbedexpat091

Not really, house prices in the last 2 years as well as town home's have increased huge amounts in this town in that time frame, as have rents.

You have mobile homes in parks on leasehold selling for almost 200,000, and 30 year old mobile homes going for 120,000 and selling just as fast.

Don't under estimate the hot real estate market this town current has, demand exceeds supply and the prices reflect that.

We have a huge building boom going on right now, any land that can be developed into houses and town houses are being built and developed and they are selling like hot cakes.

This one hasn't sold yet, but it will. Last sold in October 2014 for 377,000.

http://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Si...olumbia-V8B0R8

BristolUK

By way of comparison

UK Average monthly rent hits record high of £816, highlighting housing shortage
There's a nice map.

scrubbedexpat091

On another forum I go to there is always posts about Melbourne, Australia and housing, seems there is a housing crisis there as well.

I guess all the high income earners are slowly pushing lower earners out, used to be possible to find places, but now it's almost impossible to find something in a lower price range, and when you do there are dozens of others applying, and well landlords don't like to deal with disability people because the ministry can be difficult, so they just use the generic, we went with another applicant, the landlords know what to say.

Then in some places you have companies like Main Street buying up apartment building after apartment building, and they are not easy to deal with.

For something so essential, housing is becoming very unstable for so many.

BristolUK

I've had plenty of prospective tenants tell me they'd rather deal with individual landlords than companies or agents.

There's been a big change in the time I've lived here - the vast majority of rentals advertised in the paper are now property companies and there are many new apartment buildings.

But vacancy rates are still high and there are tons of private rentals around with plenty of kijiji ads.

scrubbedexpat091

It's getting hard in some area's to rent from private landlords mostly because they own 1 condo and mortgaged to the hilt and rent out for what the mortgage is which is usually more then we can pay, these property management companies are eating up housing making it even harder.

Here is one, this place is run by slum lords. Average rent is 675 per room, per person. 200 sq feet, no cooking facilities. Rat and roach infested and now no elevator.


For reference those on disability in BC and social assistance get this for housing:

Single no kids 375

Couple no kids both on disability 570

Not sure how the province expects people to find housing on such pitiful housing rates.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...otel-1.3273758

2 years ago, but owned by the same family who owns the place in the above, they own several buildings and are classic slumlords.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...ding-1.1302456



We may move at the end of the lease 2 hours or so away in Chilliwack, rent is cheaper, and some places out there even include heat and hot water in the rent which would lower hydro bills.

Looking at craigslist we could pay around 200 less per month for a bigger apartment out there.

BristolUK

That place looks like the one you see in the movies where 'our hero' is on the run and has to lay low for a while.
The reception desk has that really sleazy looking guy reading (reading?) a copy of Hustler or some such and insists on cash up front. The room is filthy, the door doesn't lock, there's always an argument coming from a room down the hall and a neon sign flashes just outside the window.

scrubbedexpat091

Pretty much sums up this place perfectly.

scrubbedexpat091

The broken elevator CBC wrote about in the hotel in the above link, the slumlord had it fixed, CBC reports.

JesseLeighBrackstone

Vancouver's much like most large cities.

Just as Clydebank, Dalmuir, and so on might still be considered part of Glasgow, so Abbotsford, Surrey, and Richmond (where the airport is) etc. are still considered part of Vancouver.

THEN one has North Vancouver (another city), and West Vancouver (another city), which no one I know considers separate from Vancouver proper.

Most people think of the whole urban mess (I don't care much for cities) simply as Vancouver.

Hope this helps.

Blessings,

Jesse.

scrubbedexpat091

May as well add Squamish, just as much a suburb now considering prices and amount of commuters.

A bit further then Maple Ridge is from Downtown Vancouver but time wise not much of a difference.

scrubbedexpat091

Study suggests overseas buyers impacting Vancouver real estate market - BC | Globalnews.ca

BeenTrainingDogs

Did you really need a study to tell you that? =P

Shard

Although the interesting point was that it is students purchasing the homes.

el_richo

"He conducted a title search of the homes, looking for non-anglicized Chinese names in combination with job descriptions like homemaker, student and businessperson as indicators for foreign investment."

And then

"“Eighty-two per cent of our study population was financed,” Yan said."

Alan2005

Student name on the title = no unoccupied property tax innit.

Long time readers will know that right back in 2008/9 I thought this market would crash already. Well I got that wrong; 7 years later and it's still going up. Even out where I live prices have gone up 10+% in the last year (after being flat for the previous few). There are million+ dollar homes on my street now - something that I would have laughed at 5 years ago.

It doesn't help that interest rates haven't gone up and aren't going to go up significantly for at least a couple of decades. Anyone thinking that will help bring prices down should probably think again.