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2009-06-29 - 1:25 p.m.

...jump...

One of the truths of Funcouver is that you cannot live here without talking about hiking, skiing, and real estate.

So purely as a means of fitting in...;-) K and I have been looking at places to live for over a year.

Even in the midst of the recession this year, we've watched houses get multiple offers in one day, and sell for as much as 100k over asking price. These prices defy the logic of the current economy, and the prices found in other neighborhoods. As our agent puts it, "there is a lot of emotional money in the market right now."

I've spent the last months assembling all of the data that I can get on housing prices in our neighborhood, and examining breakdowns by time of year, size, type of property, distance from the center of the neighborhood - etc. I've made plots and graphs, and have a multi-page worksheet in excel examining differences in the price per square foot under various circumstances. (K is quite amused. I've turned this into a regular data analysis project).

Anyway, the data analysis has provided me with a pretty firm grasp of how prices can vary, and how emotional buyers can really be. People are getting their asking prices. It's amazing. But the analysis has also given us an idea of what prices are reasonable for the neighborhood.

So at last we've found a place that meets enough of our requirements to be a viable option. It's in the neighborhood. It's has enough rooms and storage. It has a fenced-in yard. It has views. And a garage. It's pretty darned cute.

Our agent has emailed us the first draft of a contract. I go back and forth between excitement and trepidation. My god this is a lot of money.

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...they are just words, Suzi... - 2011-08-29
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