While perusing some of the site’s unique hits this afternoon I came across a link to a very interesting blog entitled Vancouvercondo.info, which is a mixture of humour and reality, though when it comes to the Vancouver real estate market the two are basically synonymous.
One of the most interesting entries on the blog highlights the following…
“I wondered aloud on the previous post whether Vancouver had taken the crown of ‘least affordable’ in North America yet - Well I don’t know about the GVRD, but according to Century 21 our downtown peninsula now has the most expensive real estate of all downtown neighborhoods in North America.
Not only are we number one in North America according to this report, we’ve got the fourth most expensive downtown core in the world! Coming in at $577 per square foot Vancouver ranks only behind Paris, Moscow and Seol for the most expensive downtown real estate on the planet. We’ve got London beat and those sad little towns of Tokyo and New York City only come in as number 9 & 8 on the most expensive cities list.”
Also of interest was this…
“The affordability index for a detached bungalow in Canada’s largest cities:
• Vancouver 70.1%
• Toronto 43.8%
• Calgary 40.9%
• Edmonton 33.4%
• Montreal 36%
• Ottawa 30.8 %“The higher the city is in an index, the more costly it is to afford a home. For example, a reading of 50 per cent means that homeownership costs, including mortgage payments, utilities and property taxes, take up half of a typical household’s monthly pre-tax income.”
Basically, if you’re looking to find somewhere to live and raise a family, you might consider Golden, BC. Sure, it’s a bit of a commute, but what else are you going to do?
Oh, and good luck to that special someone on this day of days in their new West Vancouver real estate venture. Never was there a better location to be served by such an ‘endearing’ smile.
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nuts. i’ve happened upon the site before as well…what baffles me a bit is Moscow ranked so high
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I think this is largely a geographical issue. There’s only so much space in the downtown core. Water on two sides… a park on one… and sprawl to the east…. Maybe they should just bulldoze Stanley park and things will get cheaper with the extra room.
I think i heard somewhere that the owners of GM place would get be in the money if they leveled GM place and replaced it with high rise condo’s. What a strange irony.
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the only part geography has has to do with this is the view. if you drive by SE FC right now you’ll see that they’re building up the creekside to make more room for developments. whats driving the prices sky high are offshore investors buying developments on “the ground floor” and selling the contracts when the building is near completion. average investor is making $50k before its even time to move in, and he’s saving on the gst.
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Boy, I complain about how expensive it is to live in Toronto and other much smaller places in Ontario. I guess I should never think about moving to Vancouver. ;)
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thats intense….is it really more expensive than say manhattan, new york!……im glad i live in new west close enough to downtown with out having to pay ridiculous sums of money that i dont have for a roof!
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What’s funny is that when I was in New York last year, I remarked to my friends how similar the rents are to downtown Vancouver. The two cities are much more similar in that way than you might imagine. $1500-2500 for a small, tiny apartment (nay, broom closet) at the center of it all.
Of course, having been to New York and a few other major U.S. cities, I can see now why visitors to Vancouver marvel at how clean it is, even if Vancouverites themselves don’t always see it.
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*sigh*
There was a time I would have loved to live in Vancouver. At this rate, I would be happy to be able to just visit again.
On the real estate topic, does anyone else want to kick house flippers in the gozers?
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I spent last night sleeping in the back of my subaru in Golden, BC, coincidentally enough. What with white-water rafting on the Kickinghorse, an abundance of wildlife (bighorn sheep, deer, and black bears…and that’s just in the past 24 hours) and apparently an over-population of young horny males, what isn’t there to love?
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I guess I’m glad that Toronto is moving slower, being that I grew up here and it’s where my heart will always be. I had considered a move to Vancouver for next year but between the class chasm opening up beneath it and the sheer cost of living there, I’m glad I decided against.
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I’m from Van but have been living in Paris for the past 5 years. Every summer I come home and I’m shocked at how much Vancouver has changed and priced me (and many others) out of housing. Paris has been great but its impossible to get ahead here, and apparently so is Vancouver these days. I’m moving back to Canada soon, but I ended up choosing Montreal for a variety of reasons, the winters not being one of them, but affordable housing was important.
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Calgary is coming. We’re not far off from Vancouver at this point and we’ve now surpassed toronto. It’s actually sickening. We just had a condo developer sell units in the downtown core with some going for as much as 3million bucks.
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Is it really more expensive to live here than in Manhatten or San Fran? I don’t think so - not in absolute dollars and cents. Maybe as a percentage of dollars earned, or some other calculation.
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Despite some of the moaning I hear around these parts, Montreal housing costs are still behind that of cities west of here. The cost of a home has gone up a bit in the past 5 years or so, but I think it will still be some time before it catches up with the other cities. Of course, depending on who’s in charge provincially, that might have an impact on real estate prices. ;-)
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And that’s based on interest rates as low as they are … bump the prime a percent or two, and those affordability percentages do the same.
We bought our Ottawa house before the craziness began six years ago and thought we splurged, but now the houses on our street go for almost twice as much.
A long commute isn’t just inconvenient; for someone who cares about the environment, it is prohibitive. Which means people who want to be environmentally responsible better be rich too.
My brother is a bike courier living in Toronto–he can only afford to rent a room in a house. He owned briefly after many years of saving but found it too expensive and sold a few years ago. It breaks his heart that he doesn’t have his own place when his young daughter visits him.
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I think the unfortunate thing is that salaries don’t always follow the cost of living. Salaries might be slightly higher in those cities but I don’t think it’s in proportion with how much it actually costs to live in city A the same way as you might in city B.
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Golden is pretty…
For the price I pay to rent a small apt in Vancouver, I could rent a whole house back in Winnipeg, and even then it’s slightly cheaper to rent the house.
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i partied in golden a few times on avalanche control….nice place…but i think you can get closer in Roger’s Pass
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We just south of downtown Montreal (Atwater market area) and bought our town house 5 years ago and are about to sell it for 150 grand more than we paid and thats with minor renovations. Montreal island prices have indeed boomed!
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Pfft as if they don’t put a Winnipeg stat! We always get left out.
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Hamilton!
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Quoting jimmyjones:
“most expensive downtown core” at an average of $577 per square foot. you have to keep in mind that vancouver also has the busiest downtown core in north america as far as developments go. we all know that brand new condos will sell for more than ones that have been around for decades.