Smaller homes could make us happier. A few years ago, Vancouver interior designer Danny Chan noticed that a number of his friends and clients started moving to the far-flung suburbs.
They said they had outgrown their tiny, yet costly, condos in the city and wanted their young kids to have backyards, as opposed to back alleys, to play in. It wasn’t the desire for greenery that troubled Chan; he loves the park near his Olympic Village condo. It was that post-upsizing, complaining, not contentment, came his way.
“My friends ended up stuck in their cars for up to three hours a day, commuting,” Chan says. “They would only see their kids for about an hour a day, because they were never home, always in traffic. So Chan started to research the kinds of houses that make people feel good. The insights changed Chan. Honing in on quality over size is smart, not just for Chan, whose three kids, ages 6, 8 and 10, share a single bedroom in their 1,600-square-foot place, but for the rest of us, too. HuffPost is now a part of Oath. House prices in Vancouver continue to edge lower. HuffPost is now a part of Oath.
British Columbia’s most expensive homes took a value hit in 2018. The BC Assessment numbers are out for 2019 and the most expensive Vancouver homes from a year ago have all lost assessed value.
READ MORE: BC’s new top 10 most expensive residential properties The list, based on how much a home was assessed at as of July 1, 2018, was released online on January 1, 2019. The highest-valued home last year was Chip Wilson’s mega-mansion on Point Grey Road. The seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom waterfront home is now worth $73,120,000, down from $78,837,000 a year ago.
WATCH: Keith Baldrey on B.C. The change is a 7.3 per cent drop in value. Most boomers likely won’t downsize for another 20 years — too late for millennials. North Americans are known to move through a fairly predictable “housing life cycle.”
Phase 1 is living in tiny apartments next to the downtown core during university and the first years of one’s career. Phase 2 usually kicks in when people start having kids, which prompts them to leave behind condos and roommates in favour of a home with a backyard. Then, typically around the beginning of retirement, comes Phase 3: downsizing. Older millennials — those born in the 1980s — are now having children and entering Phase 2.
Canadian women are having their first baby at 30, on average, around six years later than the typical age at first birth in the 1950s and ’60s, according to Statistics Canada. HuffPost is now a part of Oath. Is Toronto's housing market making a comeback after nearly two years of weak conditions?
The industry certainly seems to think so, after new data released Monday showed sales rebounding in April. On a seasonally adjusted basis, sales jumped 11.3 per cent from March, and were 16.8 per cent higher than the same month a year earlier, the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) reported on Monday. But the supply of newly-listed homes on the market hasn't been keeping up, increasing 8 per cent over that time. HuffPost is now a part of Oath. British Columbia. GovernmentGovernment Textual Records -Search Gov.
Textual RecordsProvincial Government of B.C.Office of The PremierMinistries and OrganizationsLegislative AssemblyLieutenant GovernorCabinetReturn top page HistoryBarkerville OnlineB.C. Metro Vancouver home price decline will bottom in 2019, then reverse: forecasters. Home prices in Metro Vancouver may slide further in 2019 but then will recover as demand continues and supply remains constrained, according to a panel of developers at a 2019 forecast event.
Speaking at the Urban Development Institute’s annual Forecast Luncheon on January 17, Neil Chrystal, president and CEO of Polygon Homes, said, “This year, the single-family home market will remain slow, and experience further price corrections…. In order for prices in the multi-family market to stabilize, we must first find the bottom of the single-family market, and I believe this will happen in 2019. 2019 will be the year of a reset in the multi-family sector. Developers will have to offer new homes at reset prices.” Chrystal added, “I honestly believe this is a good thing. If any market was overshot it was the high-end single-family sector, and these price adjustments are long overdue, and quite frankly necessary, before the market can move forward again.
Canadian Rental Rates Rise At Fastest Pace In 30 Years. If you've been paying the bills in your household, you've probably noticed that some things have fallen in price (gas), and some things have been largely stable (shoes and clothing, for instance).
But if you've been shopping around for an apartment to rent, you've probably experienced sticker shock. The cost of renting an apartment in Canada shot up 0.9 per cent in a single month in January, according to Statistics Canada, the fastest one-month leap since August, 1989. And even though the hike took place in the first month that StatCan is using a new method to estimate rental costs, the agency insists it's not a statistical distortion. New data shows how active foreign-homebuyers are in Metro Vancouver after big policy changes. Photo: sctkirk/Flickr Three percent of residential property sales in Metro Vancouver during October involved a foreign buyer, updated figures released by the BC government suggest.
The share of foreign buyers active in the Metro Vancouver market that month matches the province-wide average, and is slightly higher than the 2.5 percent active in Vancouver proper that month. October’s rate of foreign-homebuying activity was up from September, when 1.8 percent of transactions involved a non-resident purchaser. Sign up now for news alerts on the Vancouver housing market. Surrey, B.C. Has Second-Fastest Rising Home Prices In North America. Move over, Vancouver.
Surrey has had the second-fastest rising home prices in North America over the past five years, suggests a study of 83 major North American cities that also sees five other Canadian cities make the top 10. Between 2013 and 2018, Surrey home prices soared 88 per cent — which works out to an increase of $395,287 in Canadian dollars — according to Point2 Homes, an online real estate portal with millions of monthly visits. The Point2 Homes team says population growth is a big factor supporting the rapid price appreciation Surrey is experiencing.
Its relative affordability — at least compared to nearby Vancouver, where the benchmark price of a home is $1,019,600 — is also playing a part in creating demand. New data shows how active foreign-homebuyers are in Metro Vancouver after big policy changes. Renting vs. Buying: Why It Might Be A Good Time To Hold Off On A House Purchase. In the long-running debate on renting versus buying, the scales have tipped a little towards renting — at least in Canada's largest cities.
Rapid house price growth a few years ago, combined with rising interest rates today, mean renting has become cheaper than buying on a national level for the first time in years, National Bank of Canada said in a report this week. The report found the mortgage payment on a median two-bedroom condo had risen to around $2,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018, or about $150 more per month than the rent on a two-bedroom rental condo. Watch: Canada's most expensive condo gets a major price cut. Story continues below. But that national data hides the fact that things look very different in Canada's smaller cities than they do in the larger ones.
While both house prices and rental rates accelerated from about 2015 onwards, house prices rose much faster, and mortgage payments left rental rates in the dust. Crash? Recovery? 4 Things That Will (And Won’t) Happen In Canada’s Housing Market In 2019. With house prices at astronomical levels in many cities, a growing number of Canada's would-be homebuyers are hoping for a market crash.
In Vancouver, North America's least affordable housing market, a recent poll showed nearly two-thirds of residents, including many homeowners, want to see house prices come down. Nearly 4 in 10 in Metro Vancouver see real estate industry as ‘extremely corrupt’ Canada's New Mortgage Rules Are 'Overkill,' Industry Insiders Say, But Getting Rid Of Them Would Be Worse.
The new rules have worked. So let's get rid of the new rules. That, in essence, is the argument coming from a growing number of real estate industry insiders who are calling on federal regulators to repeal the mortgage "stress test" partly credited with cooling Canada's housing market this year. The stress test "had a very targeted outcome," said Brad Carr, CEO of Toronto-based Mattamy Homes, in an interview with Bloomberg. "It's been achieved so it's kind of overkill now. " By that he means that the days of runaway price growth are over. BoC raises interest rates again – what that means for you. As expected, the Bank of Canada has increased its target overnight interest rate to 1.75 per cent on the back of a “solid” economic outlook, the bank announced October 24. For variable-rate mortgage holders, this means the fifth quarter-point bump in their rates since July 2016. Each quarter-point rise amounts to approximately $13 a month per $100K in mortgage debt.
For a homeowner with a $400,000 variable-rate mortgage, that’s around $52 extra on their monthly mortgage payment each time the rate rises by 0.25 per cent. This means they have likely seen around a $260-per-month increase in payments since July 2017. A poll published October 23 found that 41 per cent of B.C. residents were worried they would have financial difficulties if rates were to go up. Metro Vancouver condo prices to plunge 26% by 2021: analysis - Real Estate. Opinion-mortgage-mathematics-not-adding-up-for-older-generations-in-b-c-1.
The main critique of BC NDP housing taxes has been that they breed attacks on the difficult-to-defend wealth of the longtime homeowner – that they are, in effect, thinly veiled class warfare. But I think the data suggests there’s an even deeper issue that should concern us: generational warfare. I’ve been reflecting on some new figures drawn from our most recent census by Andy Yan, the Simon Fraser University (SFU) housing expert, and concluding that many of our conventional wisdoms about comfortable homeownership in the golden years deserve to be rethought. In the case of Metro Vancouver, the nearly 95,000 homeowners aged 65 to 74 were far from out of the woods economically. Mortgage Renewers Prepare to Get the Best Rates in 2019 - Ratehub.ca Blog. Many-mortgage-renewers-can-expect-better-rate-in-2019-despite-recent-hikes-poll-1. Private-twin-islands-near-desolation-sound-listed-for-31-9m-photos-1.
Huge five-tower Coquitlam development raises traffic fears - Real Estate. Huge five-tower Coquitlam development raises traffic fears - Real Estate. Vancouver’s hot housing market shows signs of cooling - Real Estate. The case for 30-year mortgages as a financial stress reliever for new buyers. The No. 1 question to ask about your next mortgage is not whether you got the lowest possible interest rate, or how fast you’ll pay it off.
Instead, ask yourself this: How much stress will your mortgage cause you in the years ahead? If the lowest rate mortgage fries your nerves, it’s arguably not the best deal. The long cycle of falling interest rates is done like dinner. Comments made by the Bank of Canada after it recently increased its trendsetting overnight rate for the fifth time since summer 2017 suggest we will see several more rate increases unless the economy tanks. Most Canadians won’t grow cannabis at home, and many think smoking indoors will hurt resale value, survey indicates. Many Canadians are anxious about the intersection of cannabis and real estate, and while there may be a new way to take the edge off, many won’t be growing their own pot at home, according to a new survey.
When it comes to growing cannabis inside the home — up to four plants per residence will now be the legal standard in Ontario — the Zoocasa survey indicates that only 15 per cent would consider it. Real estate board reports Metro Vancouver home sales down sharply. VANCOUVER — The Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board says home sales across the region in September plunged more than 40 per compared with the same month last year. Canadian Home Construction Takes A Plunge In The Middle Of A Population Boom.
Canadian Home Construction Takes A Plunge In The Middle Of A Population Boom. Real estate board reports Metro Vancouver home sales down sharply. Toronto, Vancouver Have World’s 3rd And 4th Largest Housing Bubbles: UBS. If you follow Canadian real estate news closely, you can be forgiven for being a little confused about the state of the housing market. Depending on whom you ask, Canadian markets — particularly Toronto and Vancouver — are either on the cusp of a major correction, or have achieved the hoped-for "soft landing" and will be back to rapid price growth soon enough.
Count Swiss bank UBS as among the pessimists. Toronto, Vancouver Have World’s 3rd And 4th Largest Housing Bubbles: UBS. U.S. central bank chief issues warning on Canadian housing without even realizing it: Don Pittis. Best Mortgage Rates Canada. Mortgage Broker with Canada’s Best Mortgage Rates : intelliMortgage. Variable vs. fixed: A direct comparison of both for today’s rising mortgage rate environment. “Higher interest rates will be warranted.” The Bank of Canada has said that exact phrase for months. Whether you choose to believe it or not, the important thing is that the Bank of Canada believes it … and the market believes it.
Stop blaming mortgage stress tests for killing the housing market. When things go wrong in the housing market, people get angry. So expect to hear a lot of irate commentary on whose fault it is if house prices keep falling in Toronto and other places where people have been making lots of money off the housing boom. Vancouver home sales fell twice as fast as a bank thought they would after BC NDP’s new taxes. Vancouver home sales dropped by around 30 per cent in the month after the BC NDP government introduced a plan to tackle housing affordability. But the losses look even more dramatic on a quarterly basis, according to calculations by a major bank. Health Canada rejects claim that new radon gas standards put Canadians at risk. Vancouver has Canada's largest port. - Harvey Kardos. February 8, 2017 by Harvey Kardos As Canada’s largest port, Vancouver B.C has always been big on shipping.
Four in five British Columbians support new real estate taxes. More than 80 per cent of British Columbians agree that the new speculation tax and the expanded foreign buyer tax are “good” or “very good” moves by the NDP, according to a new poll. The survey, carried out by Insights West in partnership with CTV Vancouver, found that 82 per cent of respondents backed the expansion and increase of the foreign buyer tax, which is being raised from 15 per cent to 20 per cent and expanded to areas outside Metro Vancouver, including Victoria, Nanaimo, the Fraser Valley and the Okanagan. Metro Vancouver detached home sales slump in February.
Realtor not surprised by latest bump in B.C. property values. 7 Questions Home Sellers Should Ask Agents. Property Disclosure Statements. Property Condition Disclosure Statement (PCDS) for Property Buyers in Vancouver – What is it? - Mike Stewart. Homepage. CanLII Connects - What happens when you do not close a real estate transaction.
Legally Speaking - February 2017 (492) BC Real Estate Law Blog. BC Assessments Vs. What Your Home is Truly Worth. Failed agreements of purchase and sale: What happens next? Foreigners are banned from buying property in New Zealand — Canada should do the same. 'What buyers and sellers have been looking for': Sold prices for Toronto homes now online after court ruling. Stress tests, foreign buyers and higher rates likely to impact housing market in 2018. How to Avoid the New Mortgage “Stress Test” New Mortgage Stress Test for All “Will Do More Harm than Good” On Vancouver housing, Bill Morneau cites ‘stress tests’ that don’t seem to have cut prices - BC.
The Property Disclosure Statement in BC. Sale of your principal residence. Canada is becoming the ‘Switzerland of North America’ for global commercial real estate. Here’s what the new mortgage rules will do to home prices in 2018: Royal LePage. Province snips tenancy rule loopholes allowing double-digit rent increases. BC Home Sales Forecast to Decline Again Next Year. Will the Canadian Housing Market Avoid a Crash in 2018? House prices due for fall. NAFTA uncertainty could hurt Canadian dollar.
This View Every Day? Yours for $18.8 Million. BC Home Sales Forecast to Decline Again Next Year. What you need to know about mortgages if interest rates rise. Court ruling could end secrecy surrounding home prices. As tougher federal mortgage rules loom, will Canadians turn to credit unions? B.C. to introduce new real estate rules in 2018. Foreign buyers’ effect on Vancouver’s housing prices is ‘modest’: study - BC. Sales down but prices up: latest forecast from B.C. Real Estate Association - BC. Canada's housing boom has 30% chance of going bust, Goldman Sachs says.
Canada spared from global cyberattack by fluke: expert. B.C. city now ranks among world’s top 2 luxury home markets, and it’s not Vancouver. Moody’s downgrades Canadian banks: Beginning of the end for the housing market? New rules allowing B.C. condo buildings to be sold without unanimous approval heading to Supreme Court.