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

[woodcarver]

Good one Midnight
Just for interest and to add to the discussion, when I sold my house in England in 1982 and put the proceeds in the Bank in Canada I was getting 15/12 % interest on the deposit . In the next 18 mths mortgages reached as high as 20%. By the score people were walking away from their homes , unable to afford the increased payments.
Inflation was finally brought under control but house prices on the island did not recover substantially for over 10 years !! Wages also fell way behind , with for a long time zero increases and even reduced salaries.
Our memories tend to be short but it is only comparatively recently that we are experiencing more jobs than workers ( thank goodness ) and houses are rocketing up in price .
Hopefully our economists will continue to fine tune the economy to keep things stable and we will not return to the boom and bust scenario of a couple of decades ago.
I suppopse the best advise is not to reach too high !

Again good luck in making your choice , may the gods be with you ..........

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

[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.