Finding value or a good deal in Metro Vancouver’s red-hot real estate market sounds next to impossible these days, but the folks at MoneySense Magazine have tried.
Its latest annual rankings for the best place to buy is out and as you may have guessed — it’s not cheap.
Our suggestion is to take all of this with a grain of salt, but the report’s author Mark Brown, says one of the best deals right now in the region is in West Vancouver. “Cedardale… the average price is $2.5 million. This is not a cheap place but believe it or not it is good value. The average neighbourhood around it is going for $3.5 million, so there is a $1 million gap between you and some other neighbourhoods around it.”
Brown says if you want to live in the City of Vancouver, focus your search on the Hastings neighbourhood where he argues things are looking up for those in the market. “To get into that community you’re looking at $1.5 million. In terms of Vancouver pricing, the average price in the city is about $1.8 million or upwards of that level, so $1.5 million does look like a bit more of a value play.”
Just last week, NEWS 1130 did a story about how New Westminster may soon become the hottest real estate market within the Metro Vancouver region and Brown agrees. “If you want to buy in central Vancouver, you got to look out to New Westminster. Sapperton — this is an area where homes are going for a little over $1 million. It’s still expensive but not in the same level as we’re seeing in other parts of the Greater Vancouver area.”
Some key factors the experts included when looking for the best bang for your buck include: momentum in recent real estate transactions, real estate value relative to nearby cities or districts, health of the local economy and the price level of local rental markets.
If you’re not looking to buy here, MoneySense has declared Guelph, Ontario as the most attractive city for real estate investment value in Canada.
