The word “affordability” gets tossed around a lot these days – including my last column, in which I mused that various “affordability” measures adopted by senior governments have done little to bring home ownership closer to first-time buyers and have merely taken some of the air out of the equity enjoyed by greedy boomers such as myself.
Which got me thinking. Just how hard is it to buy a home on the North Shore? So I did something rare in journalism these days: research. With the help of running buddy and real estate agent extraordinaire Juliet Nicoll, I bypassed all the nosebleed-inducing real estate ads (“a steal at $2 million!”) and went to the Multiple Listing Service to identify the cheapest single family detached house, townhouse and condo in North Vancouver.
West Vancouver and “cheapest” don’t go together, so Canada’s priciest postal code was immediately eliminated.
Let’s start with the single family detached. As of Tuesday that was a little gem at 620 Queensbury Ave., 956 square feet of charm, complete with a picket-like fence (that needs painting) with an asking price of $1,050,000. That’s one million, fifty thousand dollars if you prefer words over numbers.
That’s right folks, the cheapest detached house in North Vancouver costs more than a million dollars. That’s unless you count 29 Johnson Bay, out there in Indian Arm, for $499,000, but you can only get there via a 20-minute boat ride. Interesting commute.
OK, let’s try a townhouse, one step down on the home/castle scale. The cheapest on offer as of Tuesday was 3325 Mountain Hwy. in beautiful Lynn Valley. Comes with a rooftop deck! View of the mountains! Only $625,000.
It’s not so bad if you say it quickly.
OK, OK. Nice, but only if your definition of affordable includes two-thirds of a million dollars.
So, let’s turn to the best way into the market, the condo! And I’ve got just what you’re looking for, a “funky” garden apartment on a quiet street in prime LoLo (real estate speak for Lower Lonsdale). And the asking price is actually almost affordable for mere mortals: $289,000. So it’s a belt-tightening 625 square feet. To compare, the average North American hotel room is 300-350 feet, so this is almost twice as big. What do you expect for only $289K?
Then there’s that word “funky.” Not sure if the agent is referring to the Urban Dictionary definition of funky: “different but cool/nice” or the Merriam-Webster definition: “Having an offensive odour.”
Surely it’s the former.
The question remains: are any of these lodgings “affordable” if you’re a young family just starting out?
Well, these days that’s a complex question. With the “stress test” introduced by the federal government, it’s a good deal tougher to get a mortgage if you’re bringing less than a 20 per cent down payment to the table. And just so we still have our feet on the ground, 20 per cent of $289,000 is $57,800. How many young families have that much saved? And if you’re a young family earning the median household income of $76,000 with a monthly debt of $1,000 (say, a car payment and credit card) and you’re only able to scratch up the traditional starter down payment of five per cent, the most you’ll be able to afford is a home with a sale price of $300,000. So you could just squeak into the bidding for the “funky” condo in LoLo.
Don’t forget lawyers, monthly condo fees ($257.38 for the above mentioned), taxes, and the movers, although most of your stuff won’t fit into 625 square feet. Oh, and you’ll have to get rid of Fido. No dogs allowed.
This reality check is brought to you by your friendly neighbourhood columnist. I have no idea what to recommend as your next step. You could move to Prince Albert, Sask., where the median price for a detached, two-bedroom house is $149,900; you could stay where you are (it’s not so bad in your parents’ basement…) or you could get really, really angry when politicians start talking about “affordable” home ownership, then keep approving luxury condo developments where the prices start north of $750,000.
It’s up to you.
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