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Comment by wired8 | Hacker News Reader

Vancouver sw eng here. I've lived in this city for 14yrs, bought in 7yrs ago. My house has doubled in value since then. The min buy in has now reached the 1million mark and continues to climb. The ratio of real estate to salary is out of wack and the talent is starting to leave. Vancouver is becoming a playground for the wealthy.

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Another Vancouver sw eng here. Only got here 3 years ago. Have to rent, impossible to buy unless I move outside the core. Then why bother living here if I have to live in Surrey? Unhappy with the fact I have to raise my first kid in a 500sqft apartment. Not sure what I'm going to do if I have another. Hoping the market crashes so I can keep living here...

Come to Toronto. The tech salaries are higher and the real estate market is not amazing but definitely lower, and we have better options for living outside the core without feeling like you're in the burbs.

You lose the ocean and the mountains though, and that can be a really hard sell (source: I moved here 5 years ago from Vancouver).

Just a note. Properties almost everywhere have almost doubled entirely due to interest rate declines over the last 8 or 9 years.

Say a house rents for $25,000/year. At 2007's rate of 4.76% on the 10yr T-bill plus ~200 points for the risk premium, the value of the house is $369,000 based solely on the NOI.

At 2016's rate of 1.85% + 200pts, the value of the house is $649,000, and that's with the same rent as 2007, not even adjusted for inflation.

That's a 75% gain on interest rates alone. Add in other factors such as increased economic activity and capital flight from overseas and you arrive at doubling.

Vancouverites -- Victoria is a very real option. You don't have to sacrifice ocean or mountains, and can afford to buy a home (and then some).

https://github.com/sendwithus/vic-startup-jobs

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