Well damn...my dream house...they lowered the price

[JacquieJet]

Good for you! That's incredible value. Very awesome!
On the next clear day, I'll wave

It is, but resale isn't like the GTA either. The Bungalow Project, finished, will be "worth" less than a mess of a house up there. Very tight market for fixing old houses down here. The Wilson Cambria house would probably fetch 120-150K when done-roof, brickwork, hvac, needed interior and foundation repairs, porch repair...Acreage is under what's required for horses, or it might go higher.

Here's a couple in the same town, that are in town, I love these:

Wow, thanks for sharing those! I agree, that cobblestone is lovely.
I am not generally well versed in real estate, I only know the values here... I guess land value makes up the majority of the price. Very interesting. My mother's 1920's townhouse in downtown Toronto was just reassessed at $750,000, and it's about 1200 sq ft and in need of various repairs with a very small lot. It was assessed at $450,000 3 years ago (and no changes have been made since then). Truly mind boggling!! Since I am on the outskirts of the GTA, we don't see the costs increase quite so dramatically, but things do tend to increase in my area by roughly 30K each year recently. Don't know when it will plateau, but I don't think this can go on forever... And most houses here sell at a bidding war, so it's a bit unpredictable.

[phil]

its equally nuts here. anything in Vancouver proper is a million. mine went from 370K to who knows , something close to 800 now I guess. a real estate agent said he'd list for 900. It didn't' make me rich , it might create a situation where I can't afford the taxes. some cash in and move to retire.
I went to the bank to talk about re writing my mortgage early, a couple months ago. they seemed to think the outcome of the US election had a lot to do with stability and hence interest rates. I was told that as long as it came out as they predicted they thought I should be OK to wait. They said if I waited until I have only 6 months left I get 2K for renewing it So I get a carrot if I wait.

fast forward a couple months. Now who knows. the outcome wasn't what most people here expected. It's a bit scary. The US interest rate is starting to rise now. I don't' know if ours will follow but the instability doesn't help things especially if you want to lock in at a set rate. It's not the place for political or religious discussion so I'd just say the unpredictability scares me because our economies are closely linked.
I wouldn't buy here now, and I wouldn't sell either. Overall it's still a good investment if you are in but the rates could change, things could tumble but there are lots and lots of people driving an hour or two in to work and I don't' have to drive so far because I'm closer so that should help keep things fairly close to what they are , I think? I definitely wouldn't invest in properties here without land, like condos or compartments. If there is a crash they will go first in my opinion. Anyone would rather live in a house than a compartment. Now they are making rules about foreign investors. Lots of the rise is because of Chinese investment especially the high end ones. We are starting to see talk of laws like if you don't' reside here and you don't' rent then you have to pay 10% of the value of the property and that goes to help homeless. It sounds good but there are loopholes. doing a reno is one loophole. There is a now a foreign investment surcharge in Vancouver and area but it doesn't cover the interior or Victoria so the foreign investors start flocking to Victoria. It mainly just moved the issue. Most of these buyers have good legal advice and there are always loopholes. What they do around foreign investment could change the game. If you are in the market you wan them to keep rising and if you are a potential first time buyer you want them to crack down on the foreign investment to prevent a rise. so we have our own causes for instability but for the most part these are factors the government has some control over. The banks dont' want a sharp rise, they know people will bankrupt, but they want us to owe as much as possible and spend all our money carrying huge mortgages. the common bloke doesn't' have much influence. A lot of politicians are more concerned about making their term look good on the books and that causes some bad decisions over the long term like selling out natural resources. Short term thinking.

[eclecticcottage]

It's funny, we never really had the huge bubble most markets did, at least the more recent bubble/crash. We had a rise in value, but not like other places-of course, we're still a rust belt area that never really bounced back, so pay can't support huge hikes in prices. They're trying to build a "tech corridor" nearby, but I doubt it will ever replace the factory jobs that were lost-big chemical companies like Oxy, Bethlehem Steel, Nabisco.

I'd say the biggest swings were in newer built areas in the 'burbs. The Wilson Cambria house (the street name, not sure of the family name attached to it) was listed around 100K in 02 when we looked at it as an REO and it sold, and I think it has sold since then for more than that. Obviously no one has grabbed it at 40K now, but it has deteriorated in condition-I noticed the bilco doors have a tarp over them for instance and I swear I recall seeing outside from inside about a year ago at an open house, at the base of a wall downstairs. It is close to the road, and now the last big employer in that town closed, so it's a half hour at least to get to work, if not an hour for most people. If gas prices spike back up it will kill me where I am trying to work on houses, as they are in outer ring rural villages/towns vs the inner ring suburbs and closer bedroom communities like where the Old House was. The house I missed out on that led me to The Bungalow Project was a trashed 50's cape for $24K-I am pretty sure I got the better of the two even though I paid more for mine (mostly because I don't really like capes-really, half capes-that much though lol). There's a lot of run down older stock around here because the economy never really rebounded from the factories leaving, so it's not uncommon to find those that are just barely livable selling to people that do just that-just live in them. It's too bad that certain areas don't get the attention of buyers though, because there are some great spots people are missing, for an extra 15-20 minute drive. There's one town nearby that just doesn't hold value, and it's too bad because I've passed on some decent houses because the returns just aren't there. Then 15 minutes away it's a 50K jump in value. Weird.

[phil]

Here it's quite diffeent as we are surrounded by mountains to the north, the US to the south, ocean to the west the only way things can grow is east and they are doing that in spades. In my lifetime population doubled. where do all these people work , factories, tech companies etc in and near Vancouver.
now If I go east an hour to an hour and a half the prices are a bit lower but even there they have gone up. like doubled.

If I then go further east then there are bargains. there is definitely no land shortage. we have a nice spot on a lake that's secluded , not near neighbors it's beautiful. but the value still isn't skyrocketing because the employers are mining and lumber and lumber isn't doing so well. mining depends mostly on copper prices.

The issue is that the jobs aren't near the cheaper houses. If they wanted to , the government could make a tax incentive for companies to open up factories further west. that would save a lot of gas and housing for the employees. most companies here want to be in vancouver because it is a port and a major business center but really 90 % of these companies really don't need to be beside a port.

Ive always thought if you find any growing city and buy on the outskirts then overall you will profit as the cheaper areas move further from the core. it sounds like thats what you are doing and it will work but it may take time for the local economies to grow and with all this foreign manufacturing it may not change back as fast as people want. Maybe there needs to be government involvement , such as saying ok we have the steel, the electricity, the coal and gas and we have an educated population so we can make our own electric cars, or something.

[JacquieJet]

fast forward a couple months. Now who knows. the outcome wasn't what most people here expected. It's a bit scary. The US interest rate is starting to rise now. I don't' know if ours will follow but the instability doesn't help things especially if you want to lock in at a set rate. It's not the place for political or religious discussion so I'd just say the unpredictability scares me because our economies are closely linked.

I totally agree, Phil. I've been saying something similar lately- I know we are a separate country, but our economies are closely tied so I can't help but worry at what is going on there.

People around Toronto have been talking about what Vancouver has done regarding foreign investors, and while we don't have those rules here yet, I think it's coming down the pipeline. In the meantime, foreign homebuyers seem to have been pouncing on the Toronto (and GTA) market, I guess anticipating new rules about it sooner than later. It certainly doesn't help the prices stay reasonable- it's like a feeding frenzy. Our home's assessed value (for property taxes) has gone up $80,000 from last year alone- and with the high mill rate here, it's definitely a worry about how high our property taxes will go. Granted, we were due for a reassessment, but still it was a shock to see how high that went.

[eclecticcottage]

Lol, my contractor is trying to talk me into buying the Wilson Cambria house. I aquessed to seeing if my agent has time to show it this weekend and both of us can do a walk through, but unless he comes up with an amazing awesome price for all the work, I just can't see it happening. It's such a big project...and I'm not done yet with the Bungalow Project! I did do a little poking around and I think the ell is an addition from around 1850.

[eclecticcottage]

I might be going to look at it tomorrow, but Im still not very convinced. My agent said "that place is a wreck" lol. I agree. But I'm obessed like I have been for like 15 years now so...I think the estimates for the work will resolve that

I found street view had an older version from 07 with the some of the outbuildings still intact. I think the little building by the ell was the well house if I recall right, and the barn with the two large vents on top in front was the original 1820's barn-again, if I recall right.

And yes, it was for sale then too lol.

[eclecticcottage]

And i just realized the well house or whatever that was is still there, it's just been moved. Why I'm happy about that, I don't know. Arg. I also realized if the ell IS an addition, there should be original "exterior grade" bricks buried behind the walls that could be used to replace the spalled ones. I also realized I think they blocked the door from the front porch of the ell on the inside. Weird. Crap. I am still obessed with this house.

[JacquieJet]

Let us know if you end up doing a walk-through! Eeeeeeee!

[Lily left the valley]

Don't forget your camera if you do a walk through either.