He’s buying a vacation property. Silly man.
Which gives me a great opportunity to rant about property values in the Pacific NW. Is it me, or does it seem INSANE to be paying four to five times your annual income (minimum) to buy a dinky, 3-bedroom house on the outskirts of town? Talking with my sister (who recently sold her house in Spokane, WA), she paid just over one times her household salary about four years ago, and recently sold for twice that, which still seems reasonable.
Do I think real estate is overpriced on Vancouver Island? You bet. Do I think it’s going to change anytime soon? No, and here’s why: intrinsic fundamentals. Victoria is the seat of Government = guaranteed employment, at least in the public sector. It’s a beautiful place = popular tourist destination, and the majority of the tourists are international, which means any slowdown in the Canadian economy (which would presumably reduce the value of our currency) is likely to make it MORE popular. Finally (and here’s the clincher), Victoria has a fixed landbase, sealed on three sides by the Pacific Ocean. With nowhere for sprawl to go other than Colwood (which has about as much pressure as they’re going to take), steady demand from natural population growth will likely hold prices at their unbelievable level for quite some time to come.
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