• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Crack House or Mansion

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
zanejohnson said:
those houses i listed arent in some bad location either... there on a private country club, about an hour north of Dallas.... i guess the town that country club is in is a little grimey, but DFW is literally right down the freeway.. and it's all suburban from here to there...
Click to expand...

The ones shown in Vancouver aren't an hour out of town though. They're a 10 minute drive (3 am no traffic) from downtown. Go an hour away and $1m will get you a new 3500 sq ft house with a yard.
 
silverpig said:
People here are starting to realize that a bunch of condos/townhouses with no yard are perfectly fine to raise a family in, so long as there is a generous helping of park space nearby and a local train station, or the ability to walk to work.
Click to expand...

I'm going to get flamed to hell for this, but as a kid, living in a rural area is awesome. You need space to be able to ride your bike on a dirt trail, walk around in the woods, play sports without breaking windows, etc.

I'm on a third of an acre and I really don't like it. My next house is going to have tons of property if I can get it.
 
Chaotic42 said:
I'm going to get flamed to hell for this, but as a kid, living in a rural area is awesome. You need space to be able to ride your bike on a dirt trail, walk around in the woods, play sports without breaking windows, etc.

I'm on a third of an acre and I really don't like it. My next house is going to have tons of property if I can get it.
Click to expand...

Plenty of open space in Vancouver and just outside of it. Stanley Park is also awesome.
 
zanejohnson said:
look at this...some houses in my area that are 10x that size for 1/10th the price...damn canada is so backward with there flappy jaws and beady eyes

http://www.lakekiowa.com/info/157/157.html
http://www.lakekiowa.com/info/1287/1287.html
http://www.lakekiowa.com/info/1830/1830.html

some of those crackshacks look like they could be nice with a little elbow grease... there's a 4 story one that wasn't bad...
Click to expand...

who wants to live where you live hehe check out any real estate on beachfront property they are same prices, i love it up there in Canada i will buy a house on victoria island personally one day, its so freaking nice up there, i could not imagine living in Texas how awful would that be =P
 
Another Vancouverite here who will vouch for that being real. Like silverpig said many of these houses have been owned outright for a long time. Vancouver has now become one of THE cities to live in. It often comes out #1 or close to it on lists of the most desirable city to live in the world over. It's a beautiful city with a lot going for it. Given this it's not all that surprising that housing prices have just gone up up up. And like silverpig mentioned much of this money is coming in from overseas. There is a huge Asian community here with big money from Hong Kong and Taiwan and many other places. Like everyone is saying it's the land that is valued at these prices not those houses. All over the city you see lots of neighbourhoods that are all 1950s style bungalows or ranchers all worth over a million. These houses have almost all been owned by people for well over 20 years or more. See if you have kept property here since the late 1980s then you got lucky. My family here doesn't quite have the money for a detached house, we live in a town house, but we too have gotten rather lucky. This gives you an idea of how things went:

We moved here from China and Malaysia (traveling for 4 years) and bought a small townhouse for $107,000 in 1988. That was about an average price for a townhouse back then. We lived in that house for 10 years and sold it in 1998 for $254,000. We used that and a little bit more money to get our current townhose which we bought in 1998 for $370,000. Last time I checked this townhouse is now worth about 790-$800,000. Again if we were to sell it now that's not enough to buy most detached homes in this area. All are above 1 mil or more.

Unfortunately this does make it quite difficult for those of us who have lived in this city for most of our lives but never owned any property ourselves. These prices are way out of our reach for the most part. You aren't going to be able to afford a million dollar property on a $30-$40,000 per year job. Because of this most of the younger generation live either in apartments or they go out farther from the city to buy. So far we don't have a huge urban sprawl situation but it is getting worse, though thankfully the fact that we are surrounded by mountains at least somewhat limits how far the sprawl could go. The city centre is also pretty damn dense with high rise apartments that aren't too too badly priced in some cases.
 
Last edited:
Here this gives you another idea:

averarge-graph-residential-aug-01-2009.jpg


And since that is for Greater Vancouver the situation is actually even worse for the close suburbs.
 
you'd think this situation would resolve itself; if someone told me the house i paid 400k for ten years ago was worth 800k right now, i would sell it immediately and move to somewhere more reasonable. it's not like housing prices are going to get any higher- at this point, it's just like holding onto shares of a tanking stock.
 
brblx said:
you'd think this situation would resolve itself; if someone told me the house i paid 400k for ten years ago was worth 800k right now, i would sell it immediately and move to somewhere more reasonable. it's not like housing prices are going to get any higher- at this point, it's just like holding onto shares of a tanking stock.
Click to expand...

Not quite. Unlike stock which has no value beyond it's actual monetary value a physical location is usually valuable because of specific traits people like about that area. There is more to living than just money. People move to Vancouver because it's a wonderful city to live in and they don't want to leave it even if they could afford more material goods elsewhere. Sure we could move to the prairies and buy a mansion but then we would have to live in the prairies. Or we could move to the US and afford much more, but then we would be in the US 😉 😀
 
yea, vancouver housing is pretty ridiculous. while the 600k-1mil houses will definitely fluctuate due to economic conditions, the 2+ mil housing market are purely supported by rich, new asian immigrants and will not be coming down in pricing in the near future.
 
Riceninja said:
yea, vancouver housing is pretty ridiculous. while the 600k-1mil houses will definitely fluctuate due to economic conditions, the 2+ mil housing market are purely supported by rich, new asian immigrants and will not be coming down in pricing in the near future.
Click to expand...

Housing market has been going nuts recently because of the looming HST.
 
Riceninja said:
right, but HST is a one-time legislative cause, not an ongoing economic factor.
Click to expand...

True wasn't trying to say it was. Long term I don't see priced dropping all that that much. Vancouver will remain an attractive city for people to immigrate to for years to come. The rich always want/need a 2nd or 3rd home as a getaway which is the case for many of the houses purchased by those from Hong Kong here. That should keep general property values fairly high. Course the entire global economy could go belly up at any time too.
 
zinfamous said:
fuck.

that was retarded awesome.

brilliant....and true?

/reads thread later
Click to expand...

Yeah. At least those are correct prices for homes like that. Whether the crack houses were real crack houses or not I don't know. However BCs largest export in terms of dollar amount is Marijuana and there are grow ops all over the city.
 
mmntech said:
Nope. It's been red hot in Canada despite the recession. Vancouver is really bad. Most younger residents there can't afford to buy a house without at minimum a 40 year mortgage. Puts you in debt for life. Things are a little better here but not much. Average price for a house in Toronto is $500,000. You could get a palace in the US for that.
Click to expand...


ummm, no. depends on where you are. If you want to live in a desert, or a backwards, boring as place like Columbia, SC; sure, $500k will take you places.


Where I live in CA, $500k won't even get you a lawn, driveway, or a 2nd bedroom.

$500k will get you a wee studio in Manhattan...if you're lucky.
 
Well, I live on Vancouver island, and can't believe how much I paid for our house ... or rather, will be paying for my house for the next 24 years 😱

I love it here though, and don't plan on leaving any time soon. Fortunately, if i do, I'll have some serious bankroll to buy something else.
 
Woah did not realize it was that crazy there. If I owned a couple Apaches and knew very good pilots, I would just buy a house in Detroit and transport it to Vancouver by air, and flip it. Instant millionaire!

I actually got 13 out of 16... lucky guesses mostly. 😛
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top