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

[Johnny Reefer]

Speaking of more jobs/workers ratio......just wondering what people's thoughts are on the aging population and how this will affect housing prices. Will empty nesters want to sell the house for a condo? Will condo prices rise because of the demand? Will house prices fall because of supply?

Thanx much,

[EmilyB]

Ah yes, I still remember walking away from an 18% mortgage in the 80's...

[Justusfish]

Definitely look for a place that has an included rental suite. It's nice to have someone pay a portion of your mortgage. I bought a house in East Van five years ago for $289,000. It was a dump but I threw a fair bit of money at it and a lot of my own sweat and energy and now have a house that I couldn't afford to purchase with its new appraisal. The rental suite downstairs made all of this a viable option.

Plus when I go away, they look after my fish!!

[mark]

Not sure what it's like in the Valley, but might just have to go quick. The prices for the first 3 months this year in Edm have been going up 5% EACH month.

[woodcarver]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/b...using_cibc_col

On Yahoo today !

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

[LostMind]

I've been in the real estate market since I was 23 when I bought my first condo downtown - went half on it with my mom (was tough living with my mom again but hey, it was an investment). We sold that condo just last year for over $200k net profit. That's a $100k each... insane for _just_ a condo.

I bought a house in 2003 in port moody for $290k. I sold it in 2006 for $500k. I did put $30k into reno's.

I took the money from my house and the money from my condo and bought a newer house in port moody (parklane home) for $688k in november. Family thought I was nuts. Fully finished basement, professional landscaping done here... right across the street, a similar house just sold, except they have an unfinished basement, for $699k.

So I guess the market is still strong. I think it's going to be strong for quite some time. Why pay someone else's mortgage? Invest in yourself.... especially with long term rates so low... I locked in for 5 years and my friends think I'm nuts... I like the comfort of knowing I won't go bankrupt for at least 5 years cuz my payments won't rise.

I have a 40 year mortgage. I pay weekly and I pay 20% extra each payment. Next year, I have the option to bump that up by another 20% per payment if I want. I can also make lump sum payments of up to 20% of the original mortgage amount per year if I want. In other words, I can still pay the mortgage off quickly if I have some extra disposable income. Yet the 40 year mortgage gives me the flexibility to drop my payment amounts to a dollar value that I can cover by working at mcdonalds full time if I ever had too. Point is, shop around for a good, flexible mortgage. Who knows what curveballs life is going to throw at you... would really suck to lose your job and your home.

Other countries deal with 90 year mortgages... 40 year mortgages have been popular in the US for a long time I heard...

Don't get scared out of the market would be my advice... long term, real estate is going to keep rising... then again, don't just jump into the first house you find... so many properties out there and deals are still to be had (just have to think relative to the rest of the market, not your own preconceived idea of what housing should cost).

Now, can you find what you want in your budget? I dunno... the budget sounds a bit low to me. I mean, I live on a mountain with a 45 min drive to downtown and I paid nearly $700k for a 2400sq ft house on a pretty small lot. I've been really lucky to have a good realtor though, who has always been able to find me exactly what I want... even if it's taken a while.

[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.