Vancouver Real Estate: Buying Your First Home

Vancouver Real Estate: Buying Your First Home

Buying your first home in metro Vancouver is not difficult if you have the income to qualify for financing. If you make around $56,000 a year gross income, you can be qualified for a loan around $255,000 at 5.25% interest rate, 30 years amortization. At today's low rates around 4.5% and stretching you loan to 35 years, you can get a loan up near to $300,000.

You can buy with as little as 5% down payment, or if your parents are able to help out, they can provide the 20% down payment you need.

Renting versus Owning

Renting is for the short term. If you want to build wealth, home ownership is a proven way for many home owners to build wealth. A home say at $280,000 value can be rented at around $1,400 a month.

Now, lets look at some numbers when you are owning your home. If you can provide the 10% down payment, you will be financing your home with a $255,000 mortgage (including 2% mortgage insurance premium). Your monthly mortgage payment for the loan is around $1,400 a month. The cost home ownership is around $250 a month more than renting when you add your maintenance fees and property tax.

You initial mortgage principal pay down is at around $296 the first month, and this increases about a $1 each month on your principal repayment. This may not be much in building your home equity. But, over hthe long term, a 5% appreciation in your home value makes owning your home a winner.

Paying Off A 30-year Mortgage Sooner

You can pay of your 30 years mortgage in just over 11 years at the same monthly mortgage payment as your 30 years mortgage. A mortgage repayment accelerator program like Money Merge Account will optimize and accelerate paying off your mortgage.

Wealth building through the purchase of a second home can start as soon as you are comfortable with your finances, and the discipline involved in managing your mortgages. Finding the down payment for your second home can be worked out. There are many ways how this can be done. If you have built up enough equity, co-ownership with family members or your family income has increased substantially, you can plan on buying your second home.

You can view the latest Richmond and Greater Vancouver housing market information here.

If you like to find out how you too can benefit from real estate ownership, you can contact me at 604-721-4817 or email me.