It killed me to see my exact house for over 500,000. My yard is bigger and I have a gorgeous deck. The difference is I paid 42,000. I could never live in a big city and pay those prices but watching this show gives me ideas of things I can do to my own.
shareI live in a suburb in Illinois, and you would never find a house for 42k- However. what they pay for run down houses there, would be the price of the house already renovated here.
shareI'm always floored what people are paying in different locations. I saw them buy a house that was 630,000, if that was here it'd be 200,000 tops!
Location is EVERYTHING in real estate. The median price for a condo in New York City is 1 million dollars and the value of the residential real estate is California is greater that the value of ALL residential real estate in the other 49 states combined. Location, location, location is what matters.
shareIt absolutely is! Most of The Property Brothers shows are filmed in Canada and in one of the areas with the highest real estate costs. I live in the Vancouver area, which in 2014 had the highest average real estate cost in all of North America, so the homes in Calgary or Toronto seem comparatively "cheap". I occasionally watch other home buying shows where someone is looking to buy a 3000 square foot house on an acre lot and lamenting that $250 000 is too much - here, you would be looking to buy a smaller, older apartment out in the 'burbs for the same price. A house anywhere near Vancouver? In your dreams. Move a couple hours away - no problem. But they don't film these shows in the boonies.
shareWhy are houses so expensive in Canada? Granted I have only seen prices for BC, ON and QC. Are they any better in AB, MB or SK? I can understand why houses closer to the city centre's can cost more in Vancouver or Toronto (as they are in San Francisco or New York etc) but even out in the suburbs they are ridiculous!
shareThe Washington, DC, area also has high real-estate prices—especially in the MD and VA suburbs. Our townhouse cost 630K, and I've seen tiny closet-sized condos for 400K and up.
I'd like to be a pessimist, but this is a luxury I cannot afford.—Joseph of Cordoba