A little Vancouver balsam as a balm on Detroit's wounds...

[canuck]

I just read this article about real estate prices in Vancouver and the exodus it implies. This article from La Presse newspaper in Montreal describes a property at 22nd avenue and Balsam street as the world's most expensive slum. I dont agree with the slum bit but the writer says the house is a fifties bungalow with a dilapidated front stairway, a sick tree, dirty white walls, and crumbling back fence on a 55ft wide lot. The house is on the market for 2,489,000$.

The writer compares Detroit's gdp as double that of Vancouver's as a reminder of how sick the market is in Vancouver. Interviewees include the wife of a financial analyst born in BC who used to live in Hong Kong and is moving back there because it makes no sense to spend that much on property in a city with average salaries. There is no money left over for anything else...

I posted on a previous thread that the market was driven by rich immigrants but I was wrong. According to the writer, out of 55,512 homes sold last year, 195 were bought by foreigners; only 0,4%. The cost of a mortgage is 9,5 times the average family income.

http://lapresseaffaires.cyberpresse....-vancouver.php