Real Estate

With three blogposts under my belt (on languishing West Side Vancouver real estate, the ‘million over-asking’ house in West Van, and the recent CREA report on mortgage regulations) – I thought I’d take a chance to introduce myself and  share how I’d like to see this blog develop.

Primarily, I’m a freelance writer with an interest in the way people live, now. If you do a Google search (why would you, really?)

Since I moved to Vancouver in 1982, an enormous amount of ink has been spilled on Vancouver real estate. At that time, interest rates were in the neighbourhood of 20 percent (!), but a modest home on a 33 x 125 lot on the West Side could be bought for well under $200,000.

 The province was in a huge recession – unemployment in Kamloops was something close to thirty percent – and the province’s extensive labour union movement was in an uproar over Premier Bill Bennett’s restraint program.

Though Lotusland had a reputation for an easy, laid back vibe (there were still a lot of communal houses in Kitsilano, and the most common vehicle parked on the streets was an off white VW bug), times were tough.

When the Guinness family built the Lions Gate Bridge to connect their British Properties in West Vancouver with downtown at the height of the Great Depression, it was almost an act of desperation.

Previous developers had gone broke attempting to entice homeowners across the fast moving waters of the First Narrows, but the ferry service was never successfully up to the task.

The huge estates carved up on the sinewy streets above the Capilano River were designed by the famous architectural firm Olmsted Brothers of Boston, Massachusetts.

Fans of landscape architecture have no doubt read and re-read Witold Rybczynski’s classic, "A Clearing in the Distance," about Frederick Law Olmsted and the creation of Central Park and Mount Royal. The Capilano Golf & Country Club was designed by Stanley Thompson.

Our forefathers used to say "location, location, location" when it came to buying property.

I say negotiation is the new “ buy line” because if  you get a good deal, you have currency in the market.

You can buy in a less desirable location, add value and sell out for profit if you got a good price to begin with. You can buy prime property, but if you paid too much for it, you will spend a long time before you can cash out for better market value.

But one doesn’t negotiate just the price of the land or home anymore. It starts much sooner.

Recently, a spate of websites have popped up, allowing people to bid for the lowest Realtor®. The premise is that you input info, pay the site to post, and watch the Realtors scramble for your listing.

This whole idea is so ludicrous I will not even mention them to give them any advertising. Who buys such an important service based solely on price and expects to come out ahead?

BC's new home ownership measures will be helpful, but not for everyone.  Recognizing the difficulty for young families hoping to enjoy home ownership, the BC government announced housing relief measures effective April 1.

What does this mean for prospective homeowners? Here's the breakdown:

- Newly built homes bought as a primary residence are eligible for a provincial rebate of 71.43 per cent of the provincial portion of HST, up to a maximum amount.
- New homes with HST payable after April 1, 2012, will have a maximum rebate of $42,500 (before, that maximum was $26,250).