First of all, the lovely 100-year old home that we rented for the past 4 years, is now on the market. Our landlords, having been forced into acting sooner rather than later since we decided to give our notice before they got a few reno's started, clearly realized it's time to get off the pot and put it up for sale or risk it sitting empty while they continue to deliberate. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not bitching by any means. After all, their indecisiveness about the house meant we got to live there for a full 4 years, instead of just 9 months, while they figured out what they were going to do.
Anyhow, if you're curious - here's where we lived and, if you've got close to $1,000,000 burning a massive hole in your pocket then why not go take a look. Though, believe me, if I had that amount of money to spend, you would not see me wasting it on uber-inflated property in overrated Vancouver. A petit chateau in France or a casa a la playa in Spain? - Quite possibly. But a slum in this over-hyped city? Not bloody likely.
And if you'd told me a few years ago that I'd one day live in a million-dollar house in Vancouver, I would have laughed my pretty little head off - not to mention that I would've also expected it to be a 6-bedroom, 6 bath mansion with private beach, a massive swimming pool, tennis courts and stables!
Reality is, while I did move to Vancouver, property prices here have escalated far beyond the realms of realistic. Et voilà!
Admittedly our last place was....is...a cute character house in a great neighbourhod and we really loved living there. It shows really well in the photos too - you can even see the efforts of all our elbow-grease in cleaning the place. Though I can't deny that, when I look at that lovely bay window in the living room, I'm reminded - with a distinct lump in my throat - of just how happy our cats were too - all 6 of them that lived with us in this house; 3 of whom passed on during our time there, 3 moved with us to our new place and 1 of whom has since bid us farewell :-(
Naturally friends of ours - one a realtor and the other all mortgage-horny and obsessed with 'upgrading' to a bigger money-pit in the dull old 'burbs - soon piped up with, "You guys should buy it!" - Bless! But seriously, ask yourself - why on earth would we lock ourselves into 25 years of serious debt, use up all our hard-earned savings on the 10% down payment and then pay out a 'mere' $5,200/month on the mortgage for the very same house we've been renting at just $1,400/month. Admittedly the rent was slightly below market average - but who the hell could afford more than $5,000/month in mortgage payments???? Especially on the average meagre salary in this city? Chaining yourself into 25 years of massive debt with no money left for anything.....ever....and yet reside (notice I didn't say live), completely house-poor in the very same place we rented for 75% less with a lot less stress and lot more life!
And, for what it's worth, a million dollar property in Vancouver is definitely not going to live up to your average expectations. If you think the above price is high, on what is really just a 3BR, 2-bath house (including the basement 'suite'), then feast your eyes on this $ Million+ joke:
Yes folks, you too could shell out $1,100,000 for a disgusting teardown property on a piece of neglected land so narrow that the only building you'd get on the same plot would likely be a luxury dog kennel at best. Or maybe a tool shed. But not both!
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| Got $1,100,000 to dump on a Vancouver des-res? |
Of course you have to take a good look at the interior photos to really appreciate this high-end property, especially (what's left of) the 'kitchen'....notice the shovel? Literally looks like they'd just finished shovelling their way through years and years of scuzz and
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| How about this for Hell's Kitchen? Ramsay's worst nightmare! |
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| Lovely looking....erm....1-piece bathroom. Where's the rest of it? |
Vancouver's nice, don't get me wrong, but it's seriously not that nice. And it's nowhere near nice enough to warrant paying more than a million bucks for the privilege of giving up on life just to own a ready-to-bulldoze crack shack such as this. Which, reminds me of one of my favourite sites for a good laugh, "Crack Shack or Mansion" - which could easily include the above property. See how well you score.
Anyhoo, baffled by these two prices, on houses just a block apart on the very same street no less, I felt compelled to inform one of my long-time favourite bloggers and public speakers, Garth Turner, author of the viciously frank blog: greaterfool.ca. A smart man who unapologetically tells it like it really is, no B.S., and writes wonderfully irreverent, blunt and downright sarcastic commentary on the real estate insanity in Canada, especially Vancouver. So, imagine my utter delight when I discovered that the email I sent him (somewhat on a whim last Friday) was actually included in his blog post the very next day! I strongly suspect you'll guess which part stems from my own fair hand. Now that's street-cred!
Suffice to say, we're perfectly happy to continue renting at less than 30% the cost of owning the same type of place in this fairly ordinary city. Now, if we can just get rid of the damn carpenter ants we appear to have unwittingly inherited as room-mates!
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