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Wow, Chris: 70% of income spent on housing in Vancouver, BC? That's truly scary.

Thanks for the blog links, too; I'll have to check those out.

Do you know why Vancouver real estate prices have risen so drastically? I mean, I can understand why anybody would want to live in that gorgeous city, but I'm assuming the prices have risen faster in Vancouver than in other Canadian cities?

Thanks for the correction, by the way: yes, we bought in September 2008, not 2009. I'll send sales price info privately, but I can tell you that we purchased in the East Bay, in the city of Hayward, which got hit particularly hard. Also, in our situation, we happened to find a house where the seller was the person who had built the house (yes, our house is brand-new), and the builder ran into financial distress. So, we got the house in a short sale deal. We got what we believe to be a phenomenal value, but I tell you it also came with a fair amount of stress. We were hours away from pulling out of the deal. Our neighbors actually did pull out of the deal, but that's another story.

We're in the Hayward hills, near Cal State East Bay. It's a nice neighborhood. I believe we paid $241 per square foot. How does that sound? When we were looking, lots of places were selling for $300 / sq ft and above, if I recall correctly.