Finances & Real Estate Best areas to live in Vancouver

My wife and I are mid 20’s and originally from Alberta but have been living Sydney, Australia for the past couple of years.

We are planning on coming back to Canada around June 2012 and locating ourselves in Vancouver. While we have been to Vancouver before, it has always been for weekends away.

Our current plan is to buy a ‘project’ condo for around $300k-ish, live in it for a few years while fixing it up and then sell and move into something more kid friendly. We’d like to get into an ‘up-and-coming’ area to maximize the eventual resale value of our condo.

Now that you have the background, our biggest question is:

What are the areas we should look at moving to? We have to consider our price point and what the area is like. We are avid runners so access to Van’s running trails is very important as is a decent community ‘scene’ (cafes, restaurants, etc…). We are not willing to live in Surrey or Richmond or anywhere like that.

Thoughts?

 

For that budget, it will be hard to get anything decent downtown or Vancouver West. Main Street around the South Main (SOMA) area might have some good options for you, and might still have condos in the price range. It's an up and coming area in terms of real estate value, and I personally see it as one of the best investment spots. Lots of great cafes, restaurants, but very hipsterish (good or bad?) It's also close to the seawall by the Olympic Village area, so easy to get out and run, and close to downtown.
If you're willing to go a bit further out, Burnaby or Port Moody might be good options as well, as you'll get more space for your $, and there's still great access to parks, running paths etc.

How many bedrooms would you need? do you have any kids now?
If you'd like I can send you some snapshots of what 300K gets you in Vancouver right now. I don't try to solicit business on these forums, but I am a Realtor specializing in condos (and fellow Albertan) so would be happy to help. Just send me a direct message if interested.

 

Hey APReal, in your experience, which condo units are better for eventual resale - 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom? I've heard reasonable arguments for both sides but would like to know how it is in the real world.

 

Depends on the area and potential target market. As a general rule of thumb, I'd say go bigger as you move further away from the more expensive inner city areas.
1 Bedrooms in DT, or areas like Kits are fine because you have a large number is young, single professionals, or young couples with no kids who want to be in those areas and can afford 1 bedrooms, but maybe not 2. You also have a lot people who will rent a 1 bedroom from you if you wish to do that with your place.

As you move out more towards the suburbs, there's a lot of people going that way because they need more space, or want more space for their $. Therefore larger places are more sought after.

I don't think it's a major consideration either way. Get what makes most sense to you. Things like location, quality, builder, condo fees, floor plans layout etc. will have a much larger impact on re-salability. There's usually buyers for both 1 or 2 beds as long as the other factors of the condo are strong.