scrubbedexpat091

Can't all live in Vancouver, and only so much you can with flat land.....lol

Shard

Not much different than the Fraser Valley suburbs though. A bit of a non-article from the G&M. Couple financially stretch themselves to buy new family home. What's new.

scrubbedexpat091

I do think people should be wiser when it comes to buying, and stay within what they can actually afford and not what the bank is willing to loan them.



You'll find houses if you look in Vancouver without a tree on the property, granted you will have a view of them on the North Shore mountains though....

Shard

As long as people don't complain if they lose their house due to unaffordability, I don't see it as a problem. In a rising market (Mississauga) people want to take on as much debt as they can, as they will benefit from higher equity appreciation. This couple is fortunate in having parental support despite being well into their thirties. It's the "Canadian Dream" - a big house.

scrubbedexpat091

I don't see the appeal to these big houses, I don't want a small 600sq foot condo either, but would settle for something moderate house wise.

I can't imagine the heating and cooling of these large houses....


I don't see houses as an investment, so I don't know the in's and out's of why people do what they do, if we ever buy likely be there for life and never sell.

Shard

Houses don't need to be an investment. But for the last 70 years, they have been a pretty good one. Buyers benefit from something called leverage. If they put 25000 deposit on a 100000 property, and that property rises at 10% per year, they get the benefit of 10% on 100000 (not just the 25000 of their own money). That gives people extra equity when they retire and (often) downsize. That's how people avoid struggling in old age. Either that or save and invest throughout their working lives. However, in places like Vancouver the property market has out performed financial investments, and even more so once the 'leverage effect' is considered. That is why people are willing to overextend themselves on property. And that's why people who rent (in rising markets) will generally struggle.

JuneSpring

No tax, says Christy Clark

"By moving foreign owners out of the market housing prices will drop," she said.

The government has in the past offered tax incentives to first-time home buyers, and is working on new benefits, but there is no concrete plan in place, Clark said.

"We are open to some new ideas."

KuroKuro

I feel like a lot of people in their 20s are now being preached to by an older generation, who when they were that age it was a realistic goal to own a home. Times have changed. Education opportunities and working life are perhaps very different from what they had. I'm not saying that one generation has it better or worse than the other, but I feel like there's a big shift (in part because of the recession) just because society is different now.

So you have people around my age that are being given a message by their elders which doesn't really work with the reality that we're working through. You really have to earn well if you want to buy property, and if not, then maybe it's just not meant to be? I mean, if you're not even earning a "living wage", then IMO it's just crazy to even consider putting yourself in that kind of debt.

scrubbedexpat091

Renting an apartment where I am now is about the same or more then buying it, but banks have stricter lending rules and income requirements then a landlord does.

There are condos that would be cheaper to own then rent at the current selling price, and the mortgage+taxes+strata would be cheaper or the same as we pay in rent, but banks say we can't afford it.

Right now buying a condo is indeed cheaper then renting the same one, but banks don't lend to poor people.

ExKiwilass

On the contrary, i don't think it's been easy to own a SFH in Vancouver for a long time. When the OH's parents emigrated to Van in the late 60s, they couldn't afford the city and bought in the burbs.

scrubbedexpat091

Almost out of affordable burbs now, Chilliwack is about the only one left..


Not in Vancouver proper but North Vancouver, my wife's mom when first came over in the 60's bought in North Van originally, then moved to Sqaumish in the 80's to raise the kids as they didn't want the kids being raised in the big city...lol

Shard

That's an understandable comment. I think there have been a lot of changes. Major cities like London, Toronto, Vancouver (ahem) are far more attractive than they used to be. More populated. So as a result prices are higher. There's also the societal shift where in-demand housing requires two incomes to be affordable. It's not right, it's not easy, but that's how it is. Things have just moved on. If you look at the quality of interiors, the quality of cars, all the 'stuff' people own now, it's so much in excess of what people in earlier generations would have expect. Same with travel and foreign holidays. There have been changes all round.

Getting back to the original thread topic, that is one of the effects of foreign property investors, they distort the market for locals. Normally if prices rice beyond salary levels, people stop buying, and prices fall. With external money, that does not happen, and hence there is a rationale for some kind of public intervention. In Britain it is the new first time buyer schemes that the government introduced.

Generally it's smaller and smaller property. I do wonder if in 50-100 years time public sentiment will have shifted full circle and people will wonder why everyone is living is small high rise boxes (especially in a vast country like Canada). The property developers are aggressively promoting the idea of 'lifestyle' (cafe's restaurants, walks, vibrancy) but it is not necessarily the ideal habitat, especially for families.

scilly

We also came here in the late 1960s, and rented for 4 years before buying ............ but that was because I had to get my head around buying a house built of wood. My initial thinking was that a wood house would not last, unlike the brick and stone houses that I lived in in the UK.

But we had the opposite experience ........... we found lots of very affordable houses.

Of course, there were some that I loved and could not afford .......... in Old Shaughnessy

The one we bought was a 2 bedroom house and cost us $27,000, but was by no means the cheapest of ones we looked at.

We put in an offer on another one for $24,000, which was about $1,000 below the asking price, but were turned down because the owner (a widow) wanted to take the stove with her and we wanted her to leave it. She actually ended up selling it for $23,000 about 5 months later ......... we had friends who lived very close by and found that out.

Houses on the east side were selling for $15,000 and less at the same time but we wanted to be on the west side.

We ruled out Richmond and other 'burbs ....... I have never driven and so we needed to be where there was a more reliable bus service so I could be independent. The bus services into Vancouver from most of the suburbs was abysmal back in the day!

Three years after buying, we had a child and thought we might buy a larger house.

That was where we hit the "financial" barrier ........ houses we could afford were in areas we didn't want to live for whatever reason. Then we realised that we really like the neighbourhood, the neighbours, and its ease of access to all part of Vancouver. So, we re-mortgaged the house and added an addition which cost us $50,000.

We're still living in that same house, with many of the same neighbours!

scilly

Certainly it has been true that for several generations, every generation has done better and owned more than their parents.

The generation that is now in the 25-35 range is the first generation that is not expected to do that.

But expectations have changed ...........

I know we have a better life than my parents, and they had a better life than theirs. But they did own their own houses in England, and they made the houses very comfortable, even if money was tight.

Many in my generation wanted bigger houses ....... OH and I both prefer small older houses with separate rooms. Neither of us is enamoured of large open-plan designs.

So, we were happy to buy a small house that is still liveable for us today. We did it using only one salary, and using my salary to pay for daycare, schooling, and holidays ......... and we have had some great holidays in other parts of the world. In other words, we were able to have a life as well as paying down a house mortgage

We have also been very happy to have only 1 car, and to keep a car for at least 10 years before buying a new one.

Many of our generation and the one after us wanted bigger and better ......... and unfortunately the younger generation is having to live with that.

I'm still not sure whether the plethora of massive houses that have gone up in Vancouver over the last 10 years are truly a desire of the buyers or bought because they are the only ones available due to developers' beliefs. Some Chinese friends told us some years ago that they would have preferred a smaller house, but couldn't find any they liked so had to buy a monster.

scrubbedexpat091

At least the Premier acknowledged the foreign money raises housing prices making it difficult for first time buyers, but at the same time saying restrictions would negatively affect those who already own.

So I doubt she will bring on any changes to slow down foreign money.

It just becomes a domino affect, foreign money jacks up the prices in Vancouver, so people flee into surrounding city's with commutable distance which then jacks up the prices in those citys, and before you know it, nothing affordable left...