It came as a surprise to friends of 26-year olds Lauren Bennett and fiancé Aarron Costello when the pair decided to trade their Kitsilano rental for a semi-detached home in the suburbs. But, she said, “many of our friends are now considering doing the same.”
Like a growing number of Vancouver millennials, the couple discovered that suburban life offers lifestyle advantages, starting with saving money.
The couple is currently paying $2,000 per month to rent a one-bedroom Kitsilano apartment. Their mortgage payments at the York, a new townhome development by Mosaic Homes in Langley, will be $700 per month less, Bennett explained.
The pair put up a 20 per cent down payment and opted for a five-year fixed rate mortgage on the $310,000 property, she said.
“It so much nicer than our Vancouver apartment, “Bennett said of the two-bedroom, two-bathroom, tri-level end-unit Langley townhome that also comes with a small yard and an attached garage.
According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver it costs an average of $758,600 for a typical townhome on the West Side of Vancouver.
“Vancouver is so expensive,” Bennett said. She added that, using a park-and-ride close to her new Langley home and SkyTrain, Costello has a shorter commute to his Burnaby job than from Kitsilano. “We can drive into town on the weekends in 35 minutes,” she said.
Improved transportation has been the key to attracting Vancouver buyers, said Mosaic marketing manager Geoff Duyker, who estimated that 25 per cent of buyers at the 200-unit York are relocating from Vancouver.
Shayna Thow, director of sales for BLVD Marketing Group – which handles marketing for two Surrey developments for Vancouver’s Fairborne Homes Ltd. – said Surrey has also become a viable option for first-time homebuyers who can’t afford to buy in Vancouver. While the average price for a single-family detached home in Greater Vancouver has soared to more than $1.36 million, the average price in the Fraser Valley is still under $600,000, she noted.
“We are currently seeing over 50 per cent of our buyers coming into the Surrey market as first-time purchasers who will be living in the home as a primary residence,” said Thow. “The majority of these buyers are under the age of 35 and are utilizing family members to help aid them with deposits and getting into the market.”
And, increasingly, the young buyers are coming from Vancouver, she said.
