MyOMy

To  Sazabi and Chobit.

Sorry I don’t meant to scarce anyone other than poking a little fun for discussion.  I aint no geologist, I don’t know about “technically”, but it is absolutely politically incorrect. When I wrote, my mind flashed an image of a ditch in back I was shopping for a house in Richmond. It was a ditch with water 3 feet below in a perfect sunny day.  Also I wrongly used the term “vaporize”, it should be “liquefaction”. The City of Richmond web said it is no biggy. City of Richmond got to say what City of Richmond got to say. No government official webs deny the possibilities and effect of liquefaction. The risk is minimal but there is always some lucky fellow gets the 649 jackpot. Typical household insurance covers only the building, not the land. Suppose Richmond is flooded and buildings collapse after quake, what it does to land value? Nobody can say for sure. If there is good deal, it may be worthwhile to take the risk. Richmond is a joyful place to live after all.

MyOMy

Utopia,

You are funny. I luckily have a mother in law don't talk too loud and she only bitch at her daughter. Besides she takes care of my children.


To Shutterbug,

For the housing investment calculation. That is assume you don’t have 18,000 back then, you just have the down payment.  Suppose there is a 40 years mortgage (not in real life). You mortgage the whole proceed with 9%, you pay approx. $140 a month for 40 years. You got to live in the house for 40 years.  By the end of the 40 years, you still can sell the house for 800,000.  I myself will be happy if I can get 400,000 for it.  

So, one should try your best come up with some sort of downpayment.

SAZABI

Dear MyOMy,

1. The ground water table surely has sth to do with liquefaction (yes, you used the right term for that effect under earthquake).  However, the main thing would be the soil condition encountered on site.  For example, if you get a till-like material in the ground with water table just 0.5 m below the ground surface, I don't think you will get liquefaction under this case.  There are lots of places in greater vancouver with shallow water table, not only richmond.

2. Of course no government will deny the possibility.  I wouldn't say that the risk is minimal.  Even the site just next to the new skating ring (currently under construction) will have liquefaction problem under the right earthquake (yes, liquefaction doesn't not occur in every earthquake, it depends on the magnitude as well).  However, this problem can be treated if you know the site condition before hand.  If you pay enough attention, you should see a lot of sites being pre-loaded, or doing vibro compaction in Richmond prior to actual construction.

3. Even if liquefaction occurs for certain area in Richmond (not the whole richmond will undergo liquefaction).  It doesn't mean that the land will not be suitable anything in the future.  Pore pressure will eventually disapate and people can always do sth after.

4. Richmond being flooded to a point where the land disappear is always a stupid idea imo.  Don't want to go into details on this one.

Hope that gives you more info on this matter.

SAZABI

yeah... i just want to clarify some 'myth' that the general public has some mis-interpretation on earthquake.  I mean, if the earthquake gets up to 8.0, a lot of us will die anyways whether we live in vancouver or richmond lol.  So if earthquake is a 'big' concern, don't live in greater vancouver

Ultraman

Most first home buyers tends to be very picky to purchase their first homes. However, it's always wiser to buy the first home in a reasonable satisfaction instead of an ideal one. If you can't afford a big and more expensive home for the moment but you still want to buy one, go for a smaller and cheaper one in less expensive areas. It's not difficult at all for a stable working couple to pay for monthly mortgage, yet the much more amount of the down payment is usually harder. Moreover, gotta consider if one of the couples may get layoff or wants to change job later on, would the other couple plus the saving enough to support for a reasonable period of time. I heard of a reference of the amount of the mortgage/rental should be about 1/3 of the total family income.

katamari

Utopia, where is your bf's mom living now? Renting a place or already owned one?

shutterbug

To Shutterbug,

For the housing investment calculation. That is assume you don’t have 18,000 back then, you just have the down payment.  Suppose there is a 40 years mortgage (not in real life). You mortgage the whole proceed with 9%, you pay approx. $140 a month for 40 years. You got to live in the house for 40 years.  By the end of the 40 years, you still can sell the house for 800,000.  I myself will be happy if I can get 400,000 for it.  

What I was trying to say is that 18k to 800k isn't that much in 40 yrs jei, don't get thrown off by the increase, the amount of time invovled in critical...$140 per month @9% for 40 yrs yields 618k already la...what I mean is that stock and real estate both have it's pros and cons as a tool of investment.  Performance-wise, stock wins, leverage-wise, real estate wins.

shutterbug

原帖由 SAZABI 於 2008-5-16 12:48 發表
yeah... i just want to clarify some 'myth' that the general public has some mis-interpretation on earthquake.  I mean, if the earthquake gets up to 8.0, a lot of us will die anyways whether we live in ...

I think the difference is that if Rmd does liquify and wipes out then the chances of dying there is extremely high compared to Vancouver where the chance for survival is much higher at least...

shutterbug

原帖由 Ultraman 於 2008-5-16 12:59 發表
Most first home buyers tends to be very picky to purchase their first homes. However, it's always wiser to buy the first home in a reasonable satisfaction instead of an ideal one. If you can't afford  ...

Have you read this?

http://www.canada.com/vancouvers ... 2-8797-1ce759871cf1

"Detached houses were the least affordable option on the RBC index. The average two-storey house in Metro Vancouver carried a $619,892 price tag, requiring 75 per cent of the region's median pre-tax household income of $60,000 to make the mortgage payments and pay taxes and other ownership costs."

This was back in 2007. So 1/3 income ratio does not work in Van anymore