Perfect storm brewing. You have to be blind not to see they are in deep shit.
For the first time in ten years there are now more people leaving B.C. then are coming because its an overly expensive dump but the people are brainwashed into beleiving they live in "the best place on Earth".
Incomes, house prices leave young B.C. families
worse off than anywhere in CanadaB.C. is the only province in Canada to
report a drop in average income for this age group, the study found.
At the same time, housing prices have skyrocketed across Canada, and nowhere more so than in B.C.[/b] Real estate prices have risen 149 per cent in this province since 1976, when housing costs accounted for less than three times the average household income for young couples. Today, it is seven times as much.
Read more:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Incomes+house+prices+leave+young+families+worse+than+anywhere+Canada/5567613/story.html#ixzz1cfXVLnTX Leading realtor calls Vancouver's housing market "unhealthy"
Andrew Hasman has been in the business since 1993. "The local person is completely out of this market," he said. While skyrocketing prices have made business good, Hasman said that the current market, with
housing prices rising 10-15 per cent each year, is unhealthy.
"Anytime you have extremes in markets, it's never healthy," he said.
"You end up with a bubble. If the
local economic base can't support these levels, then at some point you're going to have a lot of people burned big time. It's not sustainable."
Leading real estate professionals reacted today to yesterday's news that home prices in Vancouver now exceed New York and London's. One realtor said he believes that buyers from Mainland China have pushed the local buyers out of the market. Each cited homes bought and traded like stocks and bonds and investment properties sitting empty, but some see the Chinese home rush as a bonus to Vancouver, while another sees it as a liability.
"Many people who buy here aren't buying because they're moving here," said Hasman.
"They're buying on speculation or to park money here ... There have been cases where people come and purchase five or six houses. No one needs five to six houses unless you're speculating."
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/city/2011/05/20/leading-realtor-calls-vancouvers-housing-market-unhealthyhttp://vreaa.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/stories-of-people-avoiding-vancouver-vancouver-is-just-too-expensive-for-what-it-is/MMM – “I recently lost a great young employee from my office here for the sole reason that he was offered a job in the US where he has since purchased a house for around one-fifth of the cost here (which includes not a rental suite but and entire separate rental HOUSE on the grounds). I didn’t believe that people would leave town for this reason myself either until I saw it first hand.”
keL – “I’m a late-twenties engineer (as is my spouse) and most of our friends in our personal and professional networks have a timeline for leaving Vancouver. We’ve already lost several close friends to Ontario, Alberta, the US and even China. A friend of ours who is a surgeon accepted a position in Regina instead of Vancouver citing the cost of living as the reason (specifically housing.. he said “I’m not buying a dump for 750K”).
ams – (33 years old, married, young son) “I have been a consultant for past several years in the software industry and do about 120K to 220K in business per year. I find it depressing that in Vancouver I can’t afford to buy a house. I put in the time doing some serious research and have seen that owning would be financial foolishness.”
ams (anecdote within anecdote) – “When I was renting in Kits, the old man across the street complained me that all his kids were in Eastern Canada because they could not afford to buy real estate in Vancouver.”
DM – “We are Vancouverites who left for 8 years and lived in Hong Kong and returned 2 years ago. Housing was expensive there too, but we were still able to buy a 1300 sq. foot flat with sea views and 25 minutes from the central business district. Even with the downpayment that we have, which is pretty significant, I can’t do the same here.”
Captain Jack – “I’m a professional making 150k a year. Live like a caged rat in a condo. RE has killed my love for the west coast. I’m outta here for good in the next 3 months.”
Makaya – (Moved here from Europe 4 yrs ago; 95K income; rents downtown) “After many discussions with my wife, we have finally decided to leave Vancouver. We have already started to look for jobs and once the right opportunity appears, we’ll be gone for good. Real Estate prices, along with general prices of goods and services here (why does everything has to be more expensive here?), are the things that turn us off, and that’s the reason why we are leaving . Vancouver is just too expensive for what it is.”
DB – “My wife and I, both early-career finance professionals, got sick of watching prices climb based on emotion, hype, and speculation and being pressured by peers to “buy before you miss the market — you don’t want to RENT forever, do you?” We packed up and left Vancouver 8 months ago.”
