A North Vancouver couple is preparing to sell their townhome to fulfil a dream of living in a single-family house in Greater Victoria where real estate prices are more affordable.
“If we moved here, we could afford to buy a detached home. That is what matters to me,” said Linda Mackie, who was house hunting here this week with husband Michael Chmara, and their eight-year-old son Connor.
The family is among an increasing number of Vancouver-area residents crossing the water to a more affordable real estate market. They want a quieter lifestyle in a close-knit community, where Connor can easily visit friends in the neighbourhood. Right now, it takes them 45 minutes to travel from North Vancouver into West Vancouver, partly because of the massive amount of condominium construction that’s going on.
“It’s a hassle getting anywhere,” Chmara said. Once settled in Greater Victoria, “every commute is going to be less stressful than the ones we have to do now,” he added.
The capital region has “more of a small city feel where you get the best of both worlds,” said Mackie, a former University of Victoria student.
Mackie, a photographer, and Chmara, a digital media editor, expect to be able to buy a single family house that is larger than the 1,400-square-foot townhouse in North Vancouver that will soon be for sale. They are looking at a range of houses in the region.
Monday saw them tour houses in the West Shore with The Condo Group, of Burr Properties, and they headed out Tuesday to check out new houses in Sidney. Mackie had anticipated being able to buy a house in Fairfield, but that now appears unlikely in the fast-changing real estate market.
Fairfield is among local markets, including Gordon Head and Oak Bay, where buyers battling for single-family houses often offer tens of thousands of dollars, and sometimes more than $100,000, above list prices.
For local resident Joe Nygren, who lives with his family in Mill Hill, house hunting has been going on in earnest for three weeks. He is exclusively looking in the West Shore to keep his children in the same schools, searching in the $750,000 price range.
There’s a clear separation between the West Shore market and the core area where competition is peaking for homes, said Nygren, who is working with Dean Innes, of Royal LePage Coast Capital Realty.
“It seems like there is, out here on the West Shore, a reasonable amount of inventory to look at as well as new construction coming on the market, particularly around the Happy Valley and Latoria areas,” Nygren said. “We’ve had lots to look at, but nothing yet that has matched up all of our needs.”
Vancouver real estate is commanding premium prices as buyers from China or elsewhere increase competition.
The Canadian Real Estate Association’s new quarterly forecast predicts continued strong national sales numbers this year as resales of existing homes charge ahead in the Lower Mainland and Greater Toronto. Rising prices are expected to continue in those areas, in contrast to regions with economies closely tied to oil and other natural resources.
By year end, total sales will increase by one per cent to 511,400, followed by 513,400 in 2017, the association said.
B.C. and Ontario are pushing up the national average price, now forecast at $478,100 for 2016.
However, 2017 will see fewer sales in B.C. because of a shortage of single-family houses on the market and deteriorating affordability, the association said.
