MyOMy

Chinese is no longer Chinese after 60 years of plotical indoctrination and 20 years of extreme merchantilism. I may be oversimply things, but won't think of myself living in such a soceity as China nowadays. If you feel comfortable about that, you may be in parardise.

US is a big country, there are regional difference. Generally speaking, you earn more in the north east and pacific west (except Oregon) but people are impatient and they won't give you the time of the day. Anything in between, you earn less but people are nicer (except some reknown red neck states)and you don't have good Chinese food.

In the long term, housing price will be increasing excpet the economy is declining. You don't want to see that day right. For Vancouver, from all the years I spent here. The house price is cycling. But one cycle is higher than the last cycle. That is like  SPIKE - PLATEAU - DROP 10 TO 30% - RISE - SPIKE.....  

So, if you are in Vancouver for the long term, you can pick any time to buy a house as long as you are not in for the short term. Id you trust your own instinct, pick the time when the market is down 10 to 30%. My neighbour brought his house in 1967 for 18,000 is now worth 800,000 just the land. That is quite good for his retirement if he relocates to an apartment.  Vancouver and Canada needs you, man. OR my retiremnt pesnion will run out before I can get to it.

Oh, for Ditchmond. If you are scarce of earthquake, don't live there. Anywhere in Ditchmond you dig 3 feet you find water. Some people using the term "vaporize" to visualize the after earthquake effect.

shutterbug

18k to 800k in 40 years isn't that much...10% compound interest anually from 18k to 800k is possible.  However, half of the current housing price was added in the last 4 years or so.  To bring 400k from 18k in 36 yrs you need about 9% return, but if you want to double your principal in 4 yrs, you need about 19% return each year.

So average of 9% vs 19%, you get the idea of how crazy the housing market is.

SAZABI

原帖由 MyOMy 於 2008-5-15 13:42 發表
Oh, for Ditchmond. If you are scarce of earthquake, don't live there. Anywhere in Ditchmond you dig 3 feet you find water. Some people using the term "vaporize" to visualize the after earthquake effect.

hee... not sure about other stuffs you said, but this is techincally incorrect.

shutterbug

原帖由 Traum 於 2008-5-15 14:08 發表

Dont' calculate it like that la, ShutterBug. You need to factor in your living cost as well ga mah. If you didn't plunge the cash down for the house 40 years ago, where are you gonna live, and how mu ...

AFAIK, saving up for a down payment 40 yrs ago is easier than it is in Vancouver now.

B2L2

原帖由 utopia 於 2008-5-15 11:48 發表
If an EA programmer (supervisor level) cannot afford to buy a house, then what about us???

EA on record isn't a good paid company, but a senior SE will have 6 digits.  If he has good saving to start with, it isn't hard to afford a house be honest.  Question is whether he likes to pay that much on mortgage.  More like whether mentally could afford than money-wise.

utopia

Well, Vancouver will always my final destination. Honestly, I like Vancouver, not too bad and not too small with variety of foods and entertainment but... like shutterbug said, it's too hard to save for the down payment....

My alternate plan in my mind is make some dollars elsewhere, then come back to Vancouver when the housing drop....

ai... I dunno, even a 45K 1300 sq ft town house in Richmond is still over-price...

I'm not sure about you guys but we don't have financial support from parents. That's mean other than paying for monthly mortgage, we have to save for our down payment on our own too....
and I only started to work for two years and just got a stable income job...

On top of that, I have to pay for my cont' study in school ... just think of those numbers make dizzy......

[ 本帖最後由 utopia 於 2008-5-15 15:21 編輯 ]

shutterbug

Even with 100k income, unless you have a substantial amount of down payment, owning a house here is still impossible.  Each 100k mortgage for 20 or so years is about $700 per month, a house here now is around 800k, you can do the math.

I think most of you are still young...think when you want to start a family and have kids!  

chobit

Well.. u better do more research my friend.

Public health Care system sucks here in The US, but you probably don't want that..!  As for private insurance.., if you have a decent job, the cost of insurance is ok.

My wife & I + the baby are currently paying approx. $200US/month for our dental/health + some additional insurance like disability, etc..!

The extra cost comes from what they call co-pay, since not everything has 100% coverage!

I had an eye surgery which cost more than $20,000, but we paid less than $900.  For our baby.  It cost about $500 at the hospital, another $100 for all the Dr. appointments before the baby delivered, and probably another $50 for the sessions on learning how breast feed..!

In case u don't know, I used to live in Vancouver, but now live in Seattle.  Personally, I would love to come back to Vancouver.  Only if cost of living can be lowered including housing, gloceries, while income goes up abit more...!

We simply net alot more $$$ here in the US than it is in Canada...!

My final goal is to come back to Vancouver when we have enough money to purchase a house.  But we'll see...!

原帖由 kaimui22 於 2008-5-15 12:31 發表
I think it really depends on what you're asking for...if you want a decent house with 2+ bedrooms and 2+ washrooms close to the city centre, it will cost you for sure. But are you willing to travel a  ...

chobit

dig 3 feet you find water..., can u tell me where this come from??  I did some intensive research about this few years ago..., and it doesn't sound as scary as the rumors..!

EL

原帖由 MyOMy 於 2008-5-15 13:42 發表
Chinese is no longer Chinese after 60 years of plotical indoctrination and 20 years of extreme merchantilism. I may be oversimply things, but won't think of myself living in such a soceity as China no ...