Saturday, November 19, 2011

Digging Deep for the Last Wave of Buyers in Vancouver

‘Mingles’ moving housing markets
Single women are the latest target demographic for the real estate ponzi scheme. Fun times. Can't afford it alone (meaning a $500k apartment. APARTMENT.), you and a friend can go into massive debt together.

Much of the desire for homeownership is driven by fear of being priced out of the market. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says the benchmark price for a detached home in Vancouver is $884,778, but even a condominium apartment has a price tag of $402,702.
Buy now or be priced out forever! Where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, here.

“They look at rental rates in an era of low vacancy and they figure they can put their money to work for them,” Mr. Simpson says. “They want to jump on the equity train right away and build equity.”
These numbers only work in a rising market, meaning one tracking significantly ahead of inflation. Otherwise, not so much.

She is part of a trend that adds an extra stage to the housing market.
Ha, they actually admit it in the article. An extra stage before . . . what? Didn't seem to finish the thought here.

“I would say a lot of my friends are doing this,” says Ms. Yan. “People are getting married later in life, too. Weddings are so expensive. I figured I would invest in an asset for now. I know it’s not my final home.”
Fortunately, there is always the option of elopement.

“They’re not getting married, so they should get on with their financial lives,” he says. “They have cash flow increasing and they can afford it, plus financially it makes tremendous sense.”
It makes tremendous financial sense to go illiquid at the point in your life with the most uncertainty about where you will land long term. Maybe that's part of what is going on here, that uncertainty is stressful and to solve it these kids take years of savings and leverage it into a deed, therefore removing the stressful uncertainty. You WILL be in that apartment paying that mortgage. I guess this is one way of keeping those young'uns in Vancouver, bury them deep in a debt trap.

No comments: