If you love, love, love the colour orange, then you just missed out on your dream bathroom.
A house on 13th Avenue in Burnaby just sold and it had an outrageous glow-in-the-dark orange bathroom featured in the listing photos.
The house is 72 years old and just sold for $2 million, or about $200,000 over the original asking price, after just seven days on the market.
The house itself is 3,300 square feet with seven bedrooms, and sits on a 7,700-square-foot lot with a large backyard. The listing leans heavily towards tempting someone to tear it down and build another house on the property, saying it has “huge potential lot size.”
The recent hike in interest rates might cool off sales in Burnaby, but right now it’s a good time to be selling an old home as they are being snapped up fast at high prices considering their age.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's monthly report for March shows the cost to buy a single-family detached home, apartment, townhome or residential all increased last month.
According to the report, two out of three Burnaby areas surpassed the $2 million mark for a benchmark price last month.
Burnaby South currently sits at a benchmark price of $2,067,100 (+4.2% in one month) while Burnaby North was at $2,021,400 (+4.9% in one month).
Burnaby East stayed under $2 million at $1,776,300 (+2.7% in one month).
Central 1 Credit Union chief economist Bryan Yu said recently that the prices have a ripple effect on the rental market.
With the benchmark housing price for the Lower Mainland at $1.4 million, Yu says affordability remains a concern. While he expects housing prices to correct in the second half of this year, it will be in a minor shift in the range of 5 to 10%. By contrast, the benchmark price for the Lower Mainland has increased 40% over the past two years.
Since the land base remains constrained, he doesn’t expect any significant correction in long-term pricing. Moreover, immigration to the region is set to hit 60,000 in the coming years.
“We’re going to see more people piling back into the rental market,” he said, advising builders to look beyond short-term pricing fluctuations and keep building. “That’s what the market is going to require as you go forward in Metro Vancouver as we absorb substantial amounts of immigration to the market.”
REBGV chair Daniel John said in the report that when it comes to listings, there's less than half of what is needed to help shift the market into better conditions.
“We’re still seeing upward pressure on prices across all housing categories in the region. Lack of supply is driving this pressure.
"The number of homes listed for sale on our MLS system today is less than half of what’s needed to shift the market into balanced territory.”
The real estate board says sales last month were 25.5% above the 10-year March sales average.
With files from Jess Balzer, Burnaby NOW, and Peter Mitham, Glacier Media
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
