I've been hearing alot of talking lately the markets about to slump. I'm thinking of buying an apartment in Cloverdale, and want to make sure I'm not about buy high when I could of waited a few months and saved $$
Is now a bad time to buy?
Better men than you are not able to time the market.
Are you buying long term? Principle residence? If you are going to buy now do it while you have great rates and a bit of a Buyers market. If prices dip you might be bidding with 5 other people come spring.
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How much would it cost to rent the same place?
Don't buy now.
The longterm forecast is that everything is turning to shit so it's a gamble either way.
"I do like how you generally bring an open-minded and positive vibe to the threads you participate in"
- Morgman
Is it ever a good time to own an apartment in Cloverdale?
Pastor of Muppets
Is it ever a good time to own an apartment in Cloverdale?
We don't know what our limits are, so to start something with the idea of being limited actually ends up limiting us.
Ellen Langer
cloverdale lol
, however, notice the black guys pants don't leave much to the imajination.
cloverdale lol
i'd trade living in richmond for cloverdale in 1/2 a heartbeat..
Sales are down 40% below the 10 year average, and Metro Vancouver is due to complete an additional 15,000 units of housing by mid 2013.
It seems that unless we manage to pull more buyers into the market, were in for a pretty serious oversupply problem on the condo side of things.
How can we pull more buyers into the market?
Lower rates - you decide if this will happen.
Ease mortgage requirements - you decide if this will happen, given they have just been tightened.
Ease up on immigrant investor program - not likely given the crack down this year.
Lastly, prices are down .5% month over month. This is what the RE board of Greater Vancover likes to call "flat and steady." Problem with that being, if you annualize that .5% drop it turns into 6% year over year.
In other words you could lose your whole downpayment in a short 12 months.
Its basically a given you can find the same condo you want for rent cheaper than it is to buy, you are losing absolutely nothing by waiting for massive supply to hit the market.
When an apartment can rent for 1200-1300$ max, but it's trying to be sold for just over 300K + maintenance fees and taxes, there's a huge problem. I'm not sure who would want to be losing 1000$+ a month buying vs renting to "build equity" hoping that this purchase turns into an investment somehow. I'm too lazy to do the math, but prices would have to rise another 20% or so in 5 years of owning to make those payments break even.
Better men than you are not able to time the market.
Are you buying long term? Principle residence? If you are going to buy now do it while you have great rates and a bit of a Buyers market. If prices dip you might be bidding with 5 other people come spring.
keep in mine the above quote is not a "it's a great time to buy" endorsement
just saying that IF you want to buy you can't time it in your favour (without luck on your side)
all the advice given here on the "don't buy" side was the same advice in october 08. by spring of '09 people were lining up again and you were paying substantially more than you would have in fall '08 and you had way less choice and negotiating power for terms of sale.
the sky may very well fall and it could be that buying in october '12 was the stupidest thing everyone has ever done…. but no one posted here knows if that is going to be true or not, until it is in the rearview
figure out why you want to buy and for what length of time you plan to hold the property. also, as mentioned by people here, determine what premium you are going to be paying to own that place compared to renting a similar place.
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Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.
For people that argue that 8 years ago it was overpriced and it kept going up, therefore today it's overpriced so it will keep going up, I say good luck. Just because the insanity went on for longer than anyone expected doesn't make it less likely that it will come to an end. It always has in the past. Yes, even the magical Vancouver has had crashes to the tune of 20-30% when affordability was much better than it is today.
Just because I drink 15 beer and don't puke when everyone guessed I would after 10 because most of my friends did, doesn't mean I won't after 20. Everything has its limit. Look at the rest of the planet. There's puke in the carpet and on the curtains in neighbourhoods worldwide and you seriously think it won't happen to you? Why, because it's homebrew and organic?
The goose is cooked. Enter at your own risk.
If
- your payments/utilities/strata etc will be the same or less expensive than renting
- you could live there for the long term if necessary
- you could survive some interest rate hikes scenarios or temporary loss of your job
its probably not a bad time. If you are looking to profit from future resale value or an "investment", you're rolling the dice.
I bought a condo. My mortgage/strata/utilities/etc. are around $1000/month. I plan to live there for another 3ish years and then will likely use it as a rental. The last owner rented it for $1200/month without a parking spot. Great buy win.
How olds the building? There are some that were built in the 80's and late 70's that are priced really well.
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