Vancouver home prices over a century

Call me shallow, but whenever I look at historic copies of The Vancouver Sun I always check out the old ads to see how much houses were selling for.

It never ceases to amaze me how cheap they were back in the old days, even with inflation factored in.

The Sun was filled with full-page real estate ads during the 1912 boom, but following the First World War bust real estate listings moved to the classified section.

The paper often had four to six pages of real estate listings on the weekend, and for many years had a “Livable Homes” section filled with stories about how to fix and build stuff.

In 1912, a lot at Seventh and Blenheim in Kitsilano was for sale for $4,000, lots in Coquitlam and Port Mann could be had for $250, and a lot in West Vancouver was $550.

The Sun’s owner, John P. McConnell, used his influence to take out a big ad to sell off his 82-acre farm in Chilliwack for $425 an acre (about $35,000).

In 1917, there were virtually no real estate listings. But in 1922, the paper was once again brimming with listings like a 14-room house on Hornby ($4,750), a Point Grey bungalow ($3,950) and a new home in Shaughnessy near the King Edward car line ($7,900).

Today houses on Drummond and Belmont Drive in Point Grey are sold for millions of dollars, but in 1927 you could purchase a lot on either for $1,600 or $1,650. You could also snap up a small house in Kits for $2,500 and one in Kerrisdale for $5,500.

Vancouver real estate at risk if Canadian lending not constrained: TD

OTTAWA - Canadian housing is 10 to 15 percent over-valued, Canada’s second largest bank warned, as it called for more action to constrain lending growth.

Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist Craig Alexander said last week in an analysis that if the overvaluation were unwound rapidly, the market correction would be three times the magnitude of the housing market correction of the early 1990s.

Alexander said it is more likely that there will be a gradual decline in sales and prices over the next several years unless there is a sharp rise in joblessness or interest rates. He warned against complacency, however.

“We need to acknowledge that a significant imbalance has developed and it poses a clear and present danger to Canada’s medium-term economic outlook,” he wrote. “It also suggests that further actions to constrain lending growth may be prudent.”

At greatest risk is Vancouver, a magnet for foreign buyers, along with the Toronto condo market, and the broad housing markets in Quebec City and Montreal, he said.

Vancouver's Real Estate Bubble Trouble

The Olympics are over, and the Village is for sale. The complex in Vancouver, British Columbia, that housed the athletes during the 2010 Winter Olympics has been converted into 1,100 luxury condos. About 450 have been pre-sold, and the sales of the remainder may well render a verdict on a mystery that looms over this city like Grouse Mountain: Did Canada prudently steer its way clear of the worst of the financial crisis only to be rewarded with a massive housing bubble of its own?

On a bright, warm Saturday in late June, couples and families wandered through the empty village, which has been renamed Millenium Water. It opened for public tours last month and draws about 100 people a day. Millenium Water is a city of the future, built with enviro-touches like green roofs and automatic shades that moderate the temperature inside the apartments. An 815-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment is on sale for C$879,000, which works out to C$1,078 per square foot, or $12 higher than the average price in Manhattan, according to The Corcoran Report. (A Canadian dollar is currently worth about U.S. 96 cents.)

FACE TO FACE/O'NEILL: Scrap the ALR and get real about B.C.'s land needs

FACE TO FACE: Is the Agricultural Land Reserve to blame for our house prices?

Rising house prices is a classic “good-news, bad-news” story. But it’s also a tale of unintended consequences.

A few weeks ago, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported that the Vancouver area led the country in the rebound of its residential real estate market, with a 22% increase compared with the same month a year before.

It’s good news for owners and sellers alike but also bad news for buyers, especially first-timers. The picture’s even more daunting considering that the Vancouver area already has the priciest residential real estate in the country.