Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Panorama Ridge Panorama Ridge Custom Home for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Brentwood Park Brentwood Park Condo for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Brentwood Park Brentwood Park Condo for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

What drives Vancouver’s house prices so relentlessly to levels four times higher than Winnipeg’s, and more than half again what Torontonians pay?

It’s simple, says Tsur Somerville of UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate.

“If you want Winnipeg-level house prices here, all you have to do is tear down the mountains and fill in the ocean.”

Well, that puts slow or stop to the steady influx of people — though the massive loss of amenities if our landscape were to be suddenly levelled might do that automatically.

“Depending where you draw the circle,” Somerville says, “70 per cent of the land isn’t developable. It’s mountains or water or the United States.”

Then, on top of this insurmountable geographic limitation, add the relentless population growth that, in good years and in bad, ranges from 1.3 to 1.5 per cent a year.

“The higher the population of a city, the higher the house prices,” he says. “If we lose 70 per cent of the land, our metropolitan area of two million will have the same house prices as a seven-million metropolitan area. Because people have to commute the same distance.”

The myths

Does this mean there’s no truth to some, or all, of the pervasive myths? You know, the ones that maintain our housing costs are driven by rich immigrants looking to get families and/or mistresses out of Hong Kong or other Asian cities. Or by criminals laundering ill-gotten gains. Or speculators. Or empty nesters who reap big tax incentives to not budge from big houses on the best land. Or all that acreage tied up in parks and the Agricultural Land Reserve. Or the rules and fees imposed on developers. Or the property transfer tax on all home sales, and the HST on new ones. Or the civic amenities for which buyers pay through the nose. Or imprudent young buyers willing to take on massive debt. Or an inherent result of a good economy. Or ....

One reader even suggests it’s the fault of public employees, who are so numerous and so well paid they over-invest in property. And an academic study on my desk argues it’s the high hidden cost of the city’s ubiquitous “free” parking.

This short series will look at several of these myths, which collectively point one finger or another at most Metro residents, no matter which group we fall into. The conclusion is, in short, that many of them are, like all good myths, rooted in a little truth. But none come close to matching the impact of the Law of Supply and Demand.

“That’s why, even if the economy collapses, house prices don’t tank,” says Jock Finlayson of the B.C. Business Council. “You get some drop, but it’s typically modest because there’s a growing population and there just isn’t a lot of land.”

@Subhead:Maintaining demand

@Body:What helps maintain this demand, says Cameron Muir of the Real Estate Council of BC, is that much of the population growth stems from international immigration, and it, unlike internal migration, tends not to follow the business cycle.

“When the economy is performing weakly, immigrants still come,” Muir says. “This not only bolsters our population, but also housing demand.”

And: “Our immigrants tend to be the cream of the crop,” Muir says, citing statistics showing 55 per cent of Canada’s investor immigrants come to B.C., mostly to Metro Vancouver.

But for people already here and newcomers who don’t arrive with money, Finlayson notes, “Incomes aren’t that high here. They’re less than in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa or London, Ontario. But our houses cost a lot more. So people cope by getting less house. They commute farther than they would in another community. Or they get less space than they would settle for in another city.

“They live in condominiums and raise children, which is not common in other parts of the country.”

Or, in the case of a growing number of young people, they’re coping in a far more worrisome way, says Andy Yan, a planner and researcher with Bing Thom Architects.

Yan has looked at what’s happened with housing in a few other high-priced cities.

In Hong Kong, which ironically is seen as a bastion of free enterprise, 60 per cent of the people live in government-subsidized housing, he said.

On the other hand, prices in San Francisco shot so high that demand has flattened or even decreased over the last 20 years, and huge numbers of the city’s workers live somewhere else and commute in daily.

Two-thirds of Metro’s people also live outside the City of Vancouver, though we haven’t yet hit the downward pressure on price seen in San Francisco.

Instead, Yan sees a lot of young Vancouverites, especially those who have an artistic bent and who thrive on the energy of a vibrant city core, packing up to leave for Montreal or Toronto simply because it’s cheaper to live there and pursue creative goals.

“Because Vancouver is going through a very destructive real estate market,” he says.

“High housing costs have a great way of killing innovation and creativity. Can the next Facebook or the next Apple computer really come from Vancouver if you’re too busy trying to pay the rent?”

The upshot, he says, is that Vancouver is increasingly seen by the young as a nice place to hang out for a couple of years, but not a place to settle down.

“That’s serious. You’ve got to think about what’s down the road. They’re not going to be here to support us, to pay for our social infrastructure and all of that.”

dcayo@vancouversun.com

Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Brentwood Park Brentwood Park Condo for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Brentwood Park Brentwood Park Condo for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Panorama Ridge Panorama Ridge Custom Home for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

An Architectural Masterpiece in Surrey`s Exclusive Panorama Ridge. Situated on a nearly half acre corner lot this one of a kind Estate home features seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and nearly 6500 square feet of refined living space. The Main floor features a grand, sunken living room with 15` coffered ceilings, a formal dining room and spacious family room. The entertainers sized kitchen is complete with tiered granite counters, separate prep/sub kitchen and opens onto a dining sized breakfast "nook." The main floor also boasts a nanny's room with ensuite, extensive drywall detailing, custom millwork, trimwork, architectural columns, decorative paint and an incredible floating Oak staircase. Upstairs offers five ensuited bedrooms, extra large skylights and an abundance of natural light. The Large Master suite has a spa inspired 5-piece ensuite with Jacuzzi tub and bidet along with a large, private sundeck and walk-in closet. The homes walk-out basement is completely finished with 9' ceilings, wet bar, steam shower, games area, maid’s quarters and home theatre. This executive home offers an attached three car garage with additional/RV parking available (up to 9 cars). At nine years old home has been meticulously maintained from the interior to the exterior to the beautifully manicured gardens. Panorama Ridge is a very exclusive enclave in Surrey featuring some of the most stunning and architecturally inspired homes in the lower mainland. ***Please Note: Seller will look at trade options or the possibility of VTB***

 

Via: The Vancouver Sun

It may not have been cheap to build, but a “green dream” demonstration house in Kamloops will be cheap to maintain.

The 3,000-square-foot home located in the Sun Rivers development is so loaded with energy-efficiency features that the estimated net cost for a year’s worth of electricity will be zero.

A rooftop array of solar photovoltaic panels generate enough power to warrant installation of a dual-purpose electricity meter that tracks the amount of energy consumed as well as surplus power dispatched onto the grid when the home doesn’t need it.

The insulation rating of the exterior walls is off the map — R44 compared to R12 for conventional fibreglass insulation in a 2X4 lumber stud wall.

An extended list of other features, ranging from 2.5-centimetre-thick recycled rubber shingles to a living-room waterfall that balances interior humidity, make it one of the most technically complex and modern homes built anywhere in the country.

The house is the product of a collaboration among several organizations, including the Canadian Home Builders Association, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Thompson Rivers University, and is one of 15 CMHC-supported “Equilibrium” green home projects that are either complete or underway across Canada.

The Kamloops home was designed by a Thompson Rivers University student, and the university’s construction trades program provided the student labour to build it.

Lindsay Langill, dean of the school of trades and technology at Thompson Rivers, noted that the university has partnered with Canadian Home Builders on housing construction projects for 19 years.

“There is no other home or project being done anywhere I know of, to this magnitude, where kids learning the trade in the foundation program are getting exposure like this,” Langill said. Trades students — carpenters, electricians and plumbers — “get hired, like bang, bang, bang” because of their familiarity with the green materials, he said.

The house recently opened to the public for tours and it’s the prize in a Kamloops YMCA/YWCA raffle.

The builders estimate the additional home features added about $100,000 to construction costs relative to a conventional home — although both CMHC and Canadian Home Builders believe those additional costs will decline as the materials are more widely adopted.

CMHC provided $60,000 and expects to get that investment back in kind as builders of all 15 homes share their insights and experiences in a series of forums aimed at fostering a fundamental reconsideration of the way homes are designed and built in Canada.

“This was a very cool job,” said Gavin Rasmussen, vice-president of Nexbuild, the general contractor who oversaw construction of the home. “You get used to building the average home, and this wasn’t the average home.”

There’s a geothermal energy system that uses pipes extending about 66 metres into the ground as an efficient means of heating and cooling the home.

“We also have a hot water recovery system on the main stack of the house so whenever you take a shower, wash dishes, it takes the hot water that goes down the drain and recovers that energy and actually stores it,” Rasmussen said.

“We’ve used a lot of renewable resources in this house as well. The flooring is all cork flooring — which is a renewable resource because you peel the cork off the tree but the tree keeps growing. We’ve used bamboo cabinetry. We’ve used all recycled glass and concrete on all the countertops.”

Lance Jakubec, senior consultant with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, said site tours will soon be available for a Burnaby home that is part of the same project — even though construction is barely underway.

“Often what’s most interesting for people in the industry is not seeing the finished home, but seeing it under construction, seeing inside the walls, how the framing is done,” Jakubec said.

“It’s not about just the fancy new technologies, which are great in their own right, but almost a rethink of how houses are designed and built.”

Sun Rivers was a logical choice of venue for the home — the project’s developers were pioneers in the installation of geothermal energy systems at a community scale in Canada a decade ago and remain on the leading edge of environmentally sensitive design.

“With so many of these green technologies now, if we can demonstrate them to consumers, and even if they take bits and pieces, over time the entire housing industry will become more green,” Sun Rivers marketing vice-president Leslie Brochu said.

Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Brentwood Park Brentwood Park Condo for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Brentwood Park Brentwood Park Condo for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

There was no way Allan Bernardo could afford to buy his own home in his east Vancouver neighbourhood. But thanks to the city’s laneway housing policy, he’s going to have his own “Fonzie suite” in the family’s backyard.

The new bachelor pad, which is under construction, is one of 111 laneway projects — the initial quota for the city’s pilot project — being built across Vancouver, while another 45 applications are in the pipeline.

The applications have been coming in at such a steady pace that staff will provide a review of the project to council on Oct. 19.

“It’s popular with the market that we expected. … These are regular lot owners and citizens, not developers,” city planning director Brent Toderian said.

Laneway housing, also known as coach houses, granny flats or garden homes, are popping up across Metro Vancouver as cities aim to densify their single-family neighbourhoods to provide affordable housing for a growing population.

Surrey and Langley Township have allowed the small one-and-a-half or two-storey units in certain areas of their municipalities for years, while North Vancouver City, Maple Ridge and Coquitlam have recently approved policies for the units in their communities.

The units are typically built above or next to detached garages and can only be rented — not sold. Most of them must include at least one parking space.

The idea is for the homes to work as “mortgage helpers,” rental opportunities or a cheaper way to house elderly parents, young adult children or other family members.

“This isn’t anything new; the Fonz in Happy Days lived in a unit over the Cunninghams’ garage,” Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said.

“The unique single-family home was built in the 1950s and ’60s; they need to evolve.”

Coquitlam, which is considering a subdivision development involving coach houses, is pushing laneway housing as an alternative for empty nesters who don’t want to leave their homes and quarter-acre lots when they downsize.

Mat Turner, a partner in Lanefab Design which custom-builds the units, said he’s getting more orders from empty nesters who are opting to move out of their family homes into a laneway house in the backyard. Lanefab’s laneway houses, ranging from 800 sq. ft to 1,200 sq. ft, cost $210,000 to $260,000 to build.

Although they are more expensive in terms of construction and servicing than a secondary suite, Turner said, many people choose them because they don’t want to live in a basement suite.

Bernardo, who’s living in a basement suite now, is one of those people. His new home, being built by Smallworks, allows him to stay in the area. “We decided instead of me moving out of Vancouver to build a laneway house,” he said. “I can’t afford to buy a place in Vancouver and I’m used to living in the location we’re at.”

But while the laneway housing concept is taking off in Vancouver, it’s a tougher sell in some of the other municipalities.

Turner said he’s received a lot of interest from Burnaby homeowners who would like to build a coach house in their back yard but that city doesn’t allow it.

And while North Vancouver City allows coach houses across the city, Mayor Darrell Mussatto said it hasn’t seen a “big rush but people are certainly looking at them.”

Unlike Vancouver, which allows homeowners to have three suites on a property, North Vancouver restricts homeowners to either a secondary suite or a laneway house — a policy Mussatto would like changed. “We do need housing and it’s a way of providing affordable housing out there,” he said.

In Port Moody, council will consider expanding its laneway housing policy across the city as its current policy, which only allows laneway housing to preserve heritage homes, has not “yielded any results,” according to a staff report. It says the units are too costly to build and would require steep rents to pay for them.

According to the report, which cites Lanefab Design, an average 875 sq. ft coach house at $210,000 would mean the homeowner would have to charge $1,700 rent to get an eight-per-cent return on their investment.

“This may be achievable in many parts of Vancouver but it’s above the rents of most apartments and townhouses and even some single-family homes in Port Moody,” the report states.

It suggests owners of older homes would find it more economically viable to rebuild their homes with both a secondary suite and a laneway house. Council will consider a draft bylaw this fall to expand the options for laneway housing across the city.

Peter Simpson, president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, said he’s pleased the laneway housing concept is starting to catch on, noting “there was always resistance but that is slowly being overcome.”

He noted it’s not without its problems: the cost of servicing is often high. And some areas, such as Surrey’s East Clayton neighbourhood, have issues with parking. But as more municipalities get on board, he said, the more support the program will likely receive.

North Vancouver’s Greg Cormier said laneway housing is an attractive option. Although it would have been cheaper to build a basement suite, he applied to build a one-and-a-half-storey “coach house” behind his heritage home at 736 East 3rd Ave. because he wanted to keep it separate from the main house.

“We didn’t want to put in a secondary suite,” said Cormier, a woodworking teacher who plans to build the coach house himself. “[A coach house] works better for our home and our situation. It’s going to be more desirable but it’ll be small. It’s going to look like a tiny little house.”

Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Brentwood Park Brentwood Park Condo for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Brentwood Park Brentwood Park Condo for sale.

As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.505.6503 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.

Craig Rushton | Vancouver Real Estate | 604.505.6503
CENTURY 21 In Town Realty

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that the number of residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 2,255 in July 2010. This represents a 45.2 per cent decline from the 4,114 sales in July 2009, the highest selling July ever recorded, and a 24.1 per cent decline compared to June 2010.

Looking back further, last month’s residential sales represent a 3.7 per cent increase over the 2,174 residential sales in July 2008, a 41.8 per cent decline compared to July 2007’s 3,873 sales, and a 17.5 per cent decline compared to July 2006’s 2,732 sales.

“With the pace of home sales and listings easing off in our market, we’ve begun to see a levelling of home prices from the record highs seen in the spring, creating greater affordability,” Jake Moldowan, REBGV president said. “Activity in today’s marketplace is clearly trending in favour of buyers.”

The number of properties listed for sale on the market has been trending downward since spring, with 4,138 new listings in July compared to April’s peak of 7,648. New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in

Greater Vancouver on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) declined 17.9 per cent in July 2010 compared to July 2009, when 5,041 properties were listed for sale.

At 16,431, the total number of property listings on the MLS® in July declined 6.5 per cent compared to last month and increased 33 per cent compared to July 2009.

“It’s currently taking home sellers who work with a REALTOR®, on average, 45 days to sell their property, which is a historically healthy timeframe for people on both sides of a transaction,” Moldowan said.

Since spring, housing prices have decreased 2.8 per cent compared to the all-time high reached in April when the residential benchmark price was $593,419. Over the last 12 months, the MLSLink® Housing Price Index (HPI) benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver increased 9.1 per cent to $577,074 in July 2010 from $528,821 in July 2009.

Sales of detached properties in July 2010 reached 908, a decrease of 43.7 per cent from the 1,614 detached sales recorded in July 2009 and a 9.8 per cent increase from the 827 units sold in July 2008. The benchmark price for detached properties increased 11.5 per cent from July 2009 to $793,193.

Sales of apartment properties reached 979 in July 2010, a decline of 42.7 per cent compared to the 1,708 sales in July 2009 and an increase of 1.3 per cent compared to the 966 sales in July 2008.The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 6.2 per cent from July 2009 to $387,879.

Attached property sales in July 2010 totalled 368, a decline of 53.5 per cent compared to the 792 sales in July 2009 and a 3.4 per cent decline from the 381 attached properties sold in July 2008. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 8.6 per cent between July 2009 and 2010 to $490,995.

View the complets stats package