Metro Vancouver Real Estate

How Far is Too Far?

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:25:00 GMT

“I’d like to buy a newer home with a decent sized yard on a quiet, tree lined street in a nice neighbourhood, centrally located.” This may sound reasonable until you factor in the price of real estate and the proximity to the city when you are in Greater Vancouver. How much you say? With the typical sale price of a single family home in the region just over CDN $1 Million, it’s just not that easy. On the west side, prices are over $2 Million. If you want a more reasonable price about 1.5 hours commute away in Maple Ridge, the price drops to about $500,000. Buyers have come to realize that living close to the city means making compromises between accommodation and commute time. Buying a condo or townhouse with smaller space but closer in allows more time for self and family. This trade-off may reduce the stress of long commutes and traffic jams. Imagine up to 3 hours per day commuting to and from work, and then driving the kids to their activities! Perhaps this partly explains why more than 60% of our sales are condominiums. This is something to think about as a home buyer. How far do you want to be?

--Arthur Ng

Burnaby on Record Growth Spurt

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:15:00 GMT

Burnaby has grown up and perhaps rivalling their neighbour, Vancouver. Here is an excerpt from the Globe and Mail, Mar 30, 2012 edition by Kerry Gold:

The Burnaby skyline is about to be transformed. The city is looking at plans to raise skyscrapers in Metrotown possibly as high as 59 storeys, with plans for more major towers to sprout over the next few years.

Since the city nearly doubled allowable building density in 2010, Metrotown has become one of the fastest growing areas in the Lower Mainland, with a projected growth of 30,000 more residents and 20,000 more workers over the next 30 years, according to Edward Kozak, Burnaby’s assistant director of current planning. Projects under way include Intracorp’s 46-storey Metroplace and 38-storey Silver towers, and the accompanying major revitalization of Beresford Street, as well as Polygon’s 37-storey Chancellor.

There are nine more towers far into the approvals process, and three or four of those are expected to break ground in the next few months.

Metrotown may be experiencing a boom, but it’s all part of a density plan that goes back to 1977 and has been revised along the way, Mr. Kozak says. Zoning was amended in 2010 to allow more density in exchange for more amenities and cash contributions, dependent on a high calibre of architectural and public space design. Several of the towers soon to be completed fall under that specialized rezoning.

“I often get the concern raised, like, ‘Wow, this is unprecedented growth,’ says Mr. Kozak, “People are shocked when I tell them… it’s not unanticipated. It’s very deliberate. There have been peaks and valleys. Right now, this is a peak.”

Like Richmond, Metrotown is a major draw for the Mainland Chinese demographic that appreciates proximity to major amenities, shopping and transit. The Metrotown SkyTrain station is the second busiest in the region. Much of Metrotown already caters to a Chinese customer base, such as the Crystal Mall.

With a revised area plan under way to handle the increased density, Metrotown is shaping up to be a more vertical and dense, urbane neighbourhood. It is going beyond its claim for having Canada’s second biggest shopping mall and becoming an urban core, complete with restaurant, hotel and shopping destinations intended to draw residents. But if they should want to go to downtown Vancouver, it’s 20 minutes away on the SkyTrain, making Metrotown a commuter hotspot for residential development. To take advantage of the extra density permitted, however, developers have to offer something special in return, other than amenities such as a seniors’ centre or daycare.

“They are going to have to provide something much more unique, in terms of architecture,” says Mr. Kozak. “Most importantly, the developer will have to contribute to the community in more ways than just redeveloping a site.

“We are trying to create a compact urban core that is walkable, and linked to the rest of the region through transit,” adds Mr. Kozak.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, the Lower Mainland is recognized world-wide. While prices may fluctuate in cycles as is typical in every market, there won’t be a meltdown in Greater Vancouver.

--Arthur Ng

What Men and Women Want (in Real Estate)

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Coldwell Banker recently released their latest survey on what men and women want in real estate. Interesting enough, the results are not what you may think. Here are highlights of the findings: Both men and women place greater emphasis on their feelings about a home more than on layout, square footage, or price. And more than 60% also know within their first visit to the home is right for them. To read the complete report, please go to: [Men/Women Survey]

--Arthur Ng

Limited First Time Buyer New Home $10k Bonus

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT

The BC government announced, on Feb 21, 2012, a one time cash bonus that can be received by 1^st time Buyers on new home purchases (with qualification criteria to a maximum of $10,000). While this bonus is still subject to be legislated, this is a huge benefit to those getting into our expensive marketplace. With some banks offering 5 year closed mortgages at 2.99%, the Property Transfer Tax Exemption for qualified first time Buyers in place, and some developers absorbing the net HST, this is a huge windfall to jump into home ownership. With the details yet to be released, there is mention of a time deadline for eligible purchases that must complete by March 31, 2013. For example, on a new apartment priced at $300,000, the savings could be as much as $35,000 (7% HST absorbed by developer; PTT exemption; $10,000 bonus). If you are still renting, you might want to talk to your mortgage broker and real estate agent to see how you can benefit. Time is ticking…

-Arthur Ng

Coldwell Banker Sings 'Home, Sweet Home' - NYTimes.com

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:30:00 GMT

Coldwell Banker released their 2012 TV ads at the Generation Blue convention in New Orleans last week. The ads focus on the "emotion and lifestyle" of homeownership and not the usual ads promoting reasons to hire a Real Estate agents that you find in most realty company TV ads. In addition the voice in the ads is that of Tom Seleck, the famous actor from the current TV series Blue Bloods and well he is known from the movies and of course his break through role as Magnum PI. Mr. Seleck has a real connection with Coldwell Banker as his father, brother and sister all worked for Coldwell Banker and his father was a VP for 33 years. The following article was recently published by the NY Times reporter Stuart Elliott, who comments on the refreshing message the ad creates for the slow to recover American housing market, and celebrates "the Value of a Home".

-- Paul Prade

Coldwell Banker Sings ‘Home, Sweet Home’

By STUART ELLIOTT

What would you do if you were a leading real estate broker during this sluggish, problematic market for American home sales? One such firm plans to accentuate the positive by playing up the emotional reasons for owning a home, now that the rational reasons like making a killing no longer seem relevant.

The firm is Coldwell Banker Real Estate, which in a campaign that is scheduled to begin on Monday will celebrate what it calls the “Value of a home.” The start of the campaign, with a budget estimated at $15 million, is timed with the approach of spring and the start of the home-buying season.

In this instance, each value cited in the campaign is a warm and fuzzy one, ranging from “the warmth of a winter fire” to “a grandmother kissing her grandchild.”

The values are brought to life in a television commercialthat cranks the emotional dial to 11, or maybe 12. The vignettes, photographed with a gauzy, well-lit look, celebrate “about 50,000 memories and a hundred thousand smiles,” which are generated, according to the campaign, by living in a home of one’s own.

Another way the emotional approach is intensified is through the use of the actor Tom Selleck to supply the voice-over narration in the commercial. It is no coincidence that Mr. Selleck is currently playing the paterfamilias of a clan of New York City police officers in the CBS series “Blue Bloods.”

“How to put a value on a home,” Mr. Selleck begins, then cites intangibles that include “the smell of pancakes made on a Sunday morning,” “the taste of a good cabernet with family at Thanksgiving” and “the power of a bedtime story.”

He also urges those listening to his voice to “subtract the stress of work” as well as “the struggles of the outside world” when considering “the value of a home.”

“Coldwell Banker,” Mr. Selleck concludes. “Where home begins.”

The campaign is created by Siltanen & Partners in El Segundo, Calif., which was selected as the Coldwell Banker creative agency in August. Siltanen & Partners replaced McKinney in Durham, N.C., whose last campaign dramatized the pitfalls of selling a home without using a Coldwell Banker agent.

“People buy homes for lifestyle reasons, for emotional reasons, and it’s not always a rational decision,” said Michael Fischer, chief marketing officer at Coldwell Banker Real Estate.

“But everything out there,” he added, in terms of advertising, “is about a rational decision.”

“There needed to be a better voice, a more positive voice,” Mr. Fischer said, that brought up “all the things that make a house a home” like “a large backyard, the outdoor fire pit” and being able to have pets.

The upbeat message is aimed not only at potential home buyers, he added, but also at Coldwell Banker agents, to remind them of what he termed “that emotional higher kind of calling of their business.”

The campaign is not a Pollyanna-like paean to buying a home at all costs, Mr. Fischer said.

“We’re not running away from” being realistic about the state of the housing market, he added, and the firm says “don’t buy a house” to those without sufficient income or plans to stay in a home for a long time.

Mr. Selleck was chosen for the campaign for “that authentic, trusting, warm voice,” Mr. Fischer said.

There also turned out to be, appropriately enough, a warm and fuzzy connection between the actor and Coldwell Banker.

Mr. Selleck’s father, Robert, “was a vice president for 38 years at Coldwell Banker” in Los Angeles, Mr. Fischer said.

And Mr. Selleck’s involvement in “Blue Bloods” resonates apart from the part he plays, Mr. Fischer said, because agents of Coldwell Banker, which has blue as its corporate color, “will say, ‘If you cut me, I bleed blue.’ ”

From the Media Decoder articles of NY Times online:

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/coldwell-banker-sings-home-sweet-home/