Anyone who’s been thinking about 밴쿠버로 옮겼어 — or anyone trying to find a place to live in B.C.’s largest city — can’t help but wonder about local real estate prices.

The current average price for a house in metropolitan Vancouver is nearly $800,000, 에 따라 광역 밴쿠버 부동산위원회.

And if you’re hoping to live on Vancouver’s West Side, prepare to spend double that amount. Westside detached homes are now averaging almost $1.7 백만.

이러한 높은 가격으로, perhaps it’s not surprising that a recent 지구 & 메일 article wondered, “Is Vancouver in a real estate bubble?”

Yet despite the headline, the article gives relatively little space to real estate price trends and much more ink to the effect of overseas buyers, particularly those from Asia, on Vancouver’s real estate market.

물론 이죠, Vancouver’s popularity with wealthy Chinese investors isn’t news. The 지구 & 메일 조각 acknowledges as much and argues that:

The torrid affair between eastern Asia and Vancouver real estate, 지금은 제 3 세기, is actually a love triangle from which each party derives very different things.

When wealthy Chinese immigrants buy property in Vancouver—and they utterly dominate the top end of the market—they’re actually buying a form of insurance.

What the federal and provincial governments get out of these newly minted Canadians turns out to be a modern form of the infamous head tax that was imposed on Chinese migrants in the 19th century.

And what Vancouver gets is an economy that boasts a lot of froth, 그리고 그다지 많지 물질.

이후 Vancouver is consistently ranked among the best places in the world to live, perhaps it’s not surprising, 등 지구 article says, ê·¸ “Vancouver is popular as a lifestyle destination for those who can afford it—not as a place to make a living. More ambitious immigrants, Asian and otherwise, 선택할 가능성이 더 높습니다 토론토.”

사실, 브리티시 컬럼비아 (which essentially means Greater Vancouver) 에 대해 수신 15% of all Canadian immigrants, 어느, given its population, is only slightly more than its proportional share.

다른 한편으로는, 그것은 연간 약 절반을 도착 10,000 or so people who can prove they are already wealthy and therefore eligible for easier, if more expensive, 의 놀이기구 entrepreneur 및 투자자 수업. 그리고 밴쿠버의 나머지 15% share fits a distinctly different profile than do immigrants to places like Toronto and Montreal: more skilled and better educated, 그리고 훨씬 덜 가능성이 난민으로 도착.

Perhaps Vancouver is becoming such a cool place to live that — as in other high-priced cities like New York or Paris — people will squeeze into ever-tinier spaces to live the “Vancouver lifestyle.”

어떻게 생각하세요? Is the Vancouver real estate market in a “bubble” that’s going to burst?

또는 will Vancouver continue to be a wildly popular place to live, regardless of the housing costs?

댓글을 남겨서 알려주세요.. 그리고 please post tips for newcomers to Vancouver who are looking for an affordable place to live! 고마워.

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업데이트: 에 따르면 RE/MAX Housing Market Outlook 2011, residential home prices are expected to climb further across Canada in the coming year. 또한, “Markets in British Columbia are forecast to lead the country in terms of percentage increases in sales activity next year, ê´‘ì—­ 밴쿠버는 올라갈 것으로 예상 같이 10 퍼센트…” 버블 여부?

밴쿠버 집 사진 작품 pnwra (플리커)