Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
You can still by a piece of crap three bedroom on a standard lot in maple ridge for 400,000 granted that's a dumpy looking thing but they're there.
First house I bought was a tear down with a leaky basement, that's just were you start here. Maybe coming from London made it easier for me to accept the compromises you have to make but there's no way I'd spend 500,000 on a townhouse in maple ridge, the whole point of buying there is get a bit of land with a crap house on it, pay down the mortgage, do some work on the house, make sure the wife has no part in the choosing of it!!
|
That might have been true a decade ago but not now.
When a dumpy house in a subburb is $350-$400 k sure. A middle class family can buy it, build some equity and then move on up.
When the price starts at $600k plus for areas as far out as Maple Ridge, not so much. How is a teacher, fireman, nurse, etc... supposed to save up in Vancouver for a down payment and then pay for a home that starts at $600k? And that's in an outlying area that leaves you socially isolated and with a huge commute. Then when the prices of housing in more central areas outpace the rate you can build equity, who exactly do you eventually afford to live in a more desirable area? You don't. Instead, you become chained to an area you didn't want to be in the first place.
That's the issue. Vancouver went from being an expensive city to an unaffordable one.