3507 replies to this topic

[lanforod]

^ maybe your compromise needs to be around your car. Every time Matt posts a link to a place at Park Place, you refuse to look as it doesn't have a garage.

[sebberry]

^ maybe your compromise needs to be around your car. Every time Matt posts a link to a place at Park Place, you refuse to look as it doesn't have a garage.

 

Like this? 

https://www.realtor....ctoria-tillicum

 

No thanks.

[Mike K.]

If your goal is to avoid the pitfalls of strata improvements, I would triple check what has been done in such a community and what has not been done. Building from the 60-90s that haven't had major work will require major work sooner rather than later, be it a new roof, elevator upgrades, plumbing upgrades, or even façade work.

[sebberry]

If your goal is to avoid the pitfalls of strata improvements, I would triple check what has been done in such a community and what has not been done. Building from the 60-90s that haven't had major work will require major work sooner rather than later, be it a new roof, elevator upgrades, plumbing upgrades, or even façade work.

 

Oh for sure.  We did a roof on my place just after I moved in.  We've got a long drawn out fiasco involving the Civil Resolution Tribunal on a plumbing issue because people trust their own opinions over that of multiple engineers and professionals.  

 

We'll likely need some work to be done with balconies and *some* of the siding in the next few years.  Thinking back to the fight about the elevator carpet colour several years ago I'm more worried about the politics than the work itself.  

 

It's spending money on a place where those born in the 30's continue to reign supreme that's the problem.  

[AllseeingEye]

So, a family struggling, and barely succeeding, in keeping a rented roof over their head and food on their plates, who cannot save a dime towards a home purchase, is somehow in your fantasy world, able to afford the cost of moving across the country on the hope of finding a job that pays at least a similar wage?

Must be nice.

 

Not sure what part of my comment was hard to understand: try re-reading the 6th sentence again - then get back to me. It really does help before trying to eagerly pile on someone to prove your moral suasion or superiority to, you know, actually read what they write first.

[AllseeingEye]

I think it is a little unfair to say that if you cant afford it here you should move to Nova Scotia. That is a reasonable option for about 5% of the population. Duncan maybe but outside the region is not the answer. We should have options for people at all pay grades. What i think people need to shift their mindset on is owning a house. Most people dont and it is fine.

Geez between you and T-Edward did reading comprehension suddenly take a 1000 year leap backwards....?

 

For the record I never said - nor implied nor inferred nor suggested - that "moving to Nova Scotia" was for everyone: what I said was I - as in ME, MYSELF  and I - would likely choose that option - merely one possibility of many - over spending a bucket-load of my hard earned dough on a glorified closet. Man did you guys all fail English 10 or what?

 

What I did suggest - for those NOT encumbered by personal, career, family or health reasons or circumstances -  was simply that there are many other options besides Victoria. That's it folks. That's all. No heartless 1% "I'm alright screw you Jack" intent stated, or implied, or inferred, or remotely suggested etc etc etc etc ad infinitum blah blah blah yada yada yada. Good grief...........

Edited by AllseeingEye, 27 November 2019 - 05:58 PM.

[Matt R.]

Lol I meant like maybe move to Saanich or something. Jeeze Louise.

Matt.

[Matt R.]

Like this?
https://www.realtor....ctoria-tillicum

No thanks.

Dude! That’s a nice place. Backs onto Tillicum, hence the lower price, but it ticks a lot of the boxes. Those are probably original oak floors too lol.

There are 2 bedroom condos there too, pets allowed, some even have a small patch of grass. The place was well built way back when, no elevators to worry about, and has healthy finances. There are some expenses coming up but it’s nothing earth shattering. Well maintained.

Some of folks take the master and a smaller bedroom upstairs and combined them into large master suites.

I don’t mean to harp on this complex as it has its warts too, but I am 100% glad we were able to afford to buy into it when we did, as we couldn’t afford what we wanted in Vic West. As Mike says, just get into the market when you can.

Matt.

Edited by Matt R., 27 November 2019 - 09:13 PM.

[Nparker]

I swear sometimes Victoria should be re-named NIMBYville. Who knew that Fernwood and North Park were being overwhelmed with "dense" housing projects?

...All agree that more affordable housing is needed. Why it is being crammed into one area? Just look at the amount of density that is being pushed into Fernwood and North Park at this point...I feel this approval decision process was slanted from the beginning...

 

https://www.timescol...ride-1.24021397

Affordable housing is vitally important, as long as it in someone else's neighbourhood. Oy vey. 

[Mike K.]

North Park and Fernwood have staggeringly low amounts of new housing. Compared to Burnside-Gorge or Vic West, those two represent blips on the new housing radar.

[Nparker]

North Park and Fernwood have staggeringly low amounts of new housing...

Exactly. Next door neighbour Harris Green has taken on the lion's share of density while Fernwood/North Park have hardly grown at all in the 2 decades I have resided in the area.

[Midnightly]

i think with North park area there are a fair amount of apartment complexes and older condo's already so density is already there.. and there are things happening (there is a rezoning for the property on cook street at queens across the street from the school to turn it into a 4plex or something-and ofcourse get rid of the parking)

 

though i'd wish they'd do something with the empty lot on cook street between queens and empress that chunk of land is ripe for development and large enough for apartments/condos even better if you can get the house beside it that has been up for sale for years

[Nparker]

i think with North park area there are a fair amount of apartment complexes and older condo's already so density is already there...

While it's true that the southern portion of North Park has a number of multi-unit residential buildings, I'd hardly refer to the neighbourhood as a whole as being densely populated.

[Mike K.]

It astonishes me North Park is even a distinct 'neighbourhood.' What makes Queens at Vancouver different from Prior at Hillside?

 

Going by that image NParker conveniently stood outside of the North Park border when taking the screenshot of NPark. And I bet he didn't even know!

[Nparker]

I was afraid the NPNA would question my motives if I took the screenshot from within the North Park borders. 

[VIResident]

Here's How Unaffordable Victoria Really Is

There are fewer Millennials owning homes in Victoria than even Toronto or Vancouver

 

https://www.capnews....fe3f8-121164041

[Mike K.]

I have a good friend (millennial aged in his late 20s) who immigrated to this country several years ago. He barely spoke English when he arrived. He doesn’t come from money, he got no special favours from anyone, he works an average job for a transport company. And he’s buying a condo.

What makes him different from everyone else?

We spent years reading about Victoria being unaffordable and why you shouldn’t buy into the market, that it will correct. Now we’re going to spend years reading why Victoria is unaffordable and why you should wish you had bought into the market years ago ...by the same messengers.

[Victoria Watcher]

indeed. the same people.

[Mike K.]

I’ll answer the question I posed above.

You know what’s different about my example of a millennial above? He’s surrounded himself by people who are positive. He’s not told “Victoria is unaffordable,” he’s told “here’s what we think you should do to buy your first home.”

And he’s doing it. If he had kept listening to his coworkers who keep telling him he’ll never do this, or won’t afford to do that, he’d be in their predicament. Myself and others are going to make sure this “kid” does the right thing and gets himself setup for a positive future. Legions of millennials who earn more than him with English as a first language, an education in this country and a network of support can achieve as much if not more than him, if only they would stop listening to the negative forces and embrace a positive outlook.

[aastra]

 

It seems that Victoria is well on its way to becoming a city of renters.

 

I have no doubt that some insightful writer will be making the same observation 40 years from now, and 40 years after that, etc. Folks, Victoria IS a city of renters and WAS a city of renters even before the first journalists were musing about such back in the 1960s.

 

So our first question should really be: is this a problem, that Victoria is the way Victoria is? When Victorians wish their city were more like some arbitrary other city on the prairies or in New Brunswick or wherever, do they really not see the glaring differences between Victoria and those other places?

 

 

1967:
...the prospects of the average working man owning his own home today are so remote as to be practically out of sight.

1969:
The day of the single-family home, so long considered the natural aspiration of everyone, may be just about over in Canada, said Mr. Jackson (Philip G. Jackson, president of Victoria Real Estate Board).

1974:
...as municipal planning officials keep pointing out, metropolitan Victoria has to face the reality that higher density residential accommodation in one form or another is the only solution to the population pressures facing this area over the next quarter-century.

Even in Saanich, which not so long ago seemed almost a bottomless pit of residential potential, the warning bells are ringing.

Says deputy planner Gil Laurenson: "Shocking as it may seem to some people, we are now moving into an era when we will see the end of the creation of new single-family lots...

1974:
Is the tailing-off in new apartment construction irreversible, or can developers be induced to meet the continuing demand for this type of accommodation -- which in the city of Victoria already houses close to 50 per cent of the population?

 

Tailing off... in 1974. And yet in 2019 we're worried that the city is "well on its way".

 

It's just an endless loop. Each new generation seems to have no interest whatsoever in knowing what happened before, what their parents went through, what their grandparents went through, etc.