Looking for a house in BC (Fraser Valley) - Half a million for what???

[andsoitgoes]

Originally Posted by G1GY

When did it ever make more sense to rent than buy?

When the price of property is high that cost is passed on to the tenant.

While the price of buying may be high, the cost of renting is much higher when you take into account that you have zero return on the money you put out as a renter.

If you buy at these prices and take a mortgage on the new outragous 40 year term........ You can still have a renter live in this place and make the mortgage payments for you.

Too many people have missed the chance to become a home owner while waiting for the next crash IMO.

See, that's what I was thinking I wanted to say

I got scared away from the market when we sold our Condo a few years back for a loss of about 25%

Thing is, had we not owned, we would have been throwing that money down the toilet to a rental. Six of one, half dozen of the other, I guess.

I can't risk being afraid again, if I do - I may never own, there may never be a home for our girls.

And like Lex Luthor's father said, the future is in land

[Dale D]

Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap

The prices do not make sense out in the valley where there is an endless supply of land.

I live out in the valley. They stopped making land out here a few billion years ago.

[woodcarver]

Hey Gigy, I dont know how old you and if you have ever experienced the vagaries of the market ??
I am an oldie and have owned houses for most of my adult life and own my present home outright but I have been through times especially here on the island when a house was anything BUT an investment ,through most of the eighties . I bought a house for $125,000 and sold it two years later for $95,000 after spending abot $ 25,000 on it , plus two years mortgage ,plus real estate fee's , plus lawyers fee's . This was also true of the Ontario market where people got carried away with the real estate boom and lost their shirts when it slowed down.
Presently rental costs have no where near reached their true value related to the dizzy new heights reached in the housing market .
These figures are academic if you can afford your payments and intend to stay in your new home for a long time .
The difficulties arise ,if you need to move ,the interest rates rise and the market makes a downward correction at the wrong time .
The U.S . housing market is looking very shaky.
History particularly recent history is no guarantee of the future .

Just a few thoughts ,


..............................Dave

[andsoitgoes]

Originally Posted by woodcarver

Hey Gigy, I dont know how old you and if you have ever experienced the vagaries of the market ??
I am an oldie and have owned houses for most of my adult life and own my present home outright but I have been through times especially here on the island when a house was anything BUT an investment ,through most of the eighties . I bought a house for $125,000 and sold it two years later for $95,000 after spending abot $ 25,000 on it , plus two years mortgage ,plus real estate fee's , plus lawyers fee's . This was also true of the Ontario market where people got carried away with the real estate boom and lost their shirts when it slowed down.
Presently rental costs have no where near reached their true value related to the dizzy new heights reached in the housing market .
These figures are academic if you can afford your payments and intend to stay in your new home for a long time .
The difficulties arise ,if you need to move ,the interest rates rise and the market makes a downward correction at the wrong time .
The U.S . housing market is looking very shaky.
History particularly recent history is no guarantee of the future .

Just a few thoughts ,


..............................Dave

that's what happened to us and our condo.

We sold, BARELY, at just over 80. Right now, a condo 5 doors down is selling for 180.

But that's a condo market. We weren't there for good, and with a house - we WILL be there to see our kids grow up and go to school. It's not a fly by night sort of thing and I refuse to go somewhere to hang around for a few years then leave. My aprents did that, and I don't want that for my girls.

[kellehar]

being from b.c and posted to Edmonton and having to put up with (them)"we're are you from" (me) " Victoria B.C" (them) Ha Ha you mean Bring.Cash." Been Dealing with that for 6 years. But now with the housing market no better here and costing 3 to 4 times as much in utilities then B.C. I finally have the last laugh with them. Well kind of as Im in the same situation as you where I would like to buy, tired of giving my money to somone else when I could be putting it back into my own pocket But un able to buy with the cost being so retarded that an honest working person would put himself in poverty or not even have the means to even atempt to purchase. I dont think I'm im rich but I consider my self stable as I usually pull in 57k+ a year. I could just imagine how hard it is for the young couples trying to make it out there. Anyways dont mean to rant but I feel for you as im in the same boat and will have to wait like alot of people till the market goes down or wages and salaries catch up to living costs.

Justin

[krisalexander]

If anyone is interested my girlfriends mom is a great realtor with Homelife Realty in walnut grove (langley). If any of you want to give her a call, her number is (604) 888-7424 her name is Pamela Steunenberg. Tell her that Kris Referred you and she will be able to help you out. I would recommend giving her a call she has quite a few houses around in the area and is a very nice lady to deal with.

Best of Luck
Kris

[trilinearmipmap]

In the long run (fifty to 100 year time span) in all real estate markets the price of real estate rises with inflation. There are several reasons for this, including real estate makes up a large part of the inflation index, real estate pricing is related to incomes which are directly related to inflation, etc. This has held up long-term in all markets all of the time.

In the short run (a few years or five to ten years) the market may be far ahead of inflation like it is now, or behind inflation stagnating or even losing value for quite a few years. However if you make a graph, draw a line increasing with inflation over many years, and graph real estate prices on the same graph, the two lines will hug each other over the long term.

Factors in the short term which can make real estate prices surge include low interest rates, a speculative frenzy, a strong economy, and a net influx of people into an area. All of these factors have coincided over the past several years to create our recent classic speculative real estate bubble.

Eight or ten years ago the same thing happened with tech stocks as is happening with real estate now. Tech stocks were going to continue to go up twenty or thirty percent a year forever. Regular average people who had no knowledge or experience at investing put all their money into tech stocks. It was obvious that a crash would happen, the only question was when. And when the crash came it hit people hard. Those who had the foresight to put their money into then undervalued energy stocks did well. Of course this took the insight and courage to go against the flow, and miss out on all those "easy" gains in tech stocks.

I would caution people who have made a killing in real estate to lock in their gains, and those who are considering jumping in to buy what they can afford and what they need, rather than viewing their home as an investment that is sure to make them rich. Most likely, if home prices have appreciated faster than normal the past five or ten years, they will go up less than normal, or go down, the next five to ten years.

Anyway good luck to you all. Fortunately in my depressed area of the province our house is worth the same as when we bought it 12 years ago, I have spent maybe thirty thousand on repairs and maintenance, and our investments and economic future are not tied up in this place.

[andsoitgoes]

well - we'll find out today or tomorrow if we've gotten the house we want under the appropriate conditions - the mortgage company we've chosen allows for a "write-off" of the suite rental costs, but they need an appraisal done to prove that it's worth the amount we're "asking"

If not, we'll probably just pay off a big ol' loan we've got, but we'd rather not be forced into that position!

so by end of day tomorrow, we'll know for certain!

NOw it's time to prepare to move... EVERYING.

Ugh.

[Samw]

I agree with Trilinarmipmap.

[woodcarver]

Good luck Nick

..................... Dave