Buy a starter home today and save for a forever home tomorrow? Or make the leap into your dream house at all costs (literally)? From a great investment to an archaic philosophy, opinions on starter homes vs. forever homes vary considerably and rightly so. With home prices on the rise, frozen salaries, and limited investment options, this age-old debate is experiencing a modern twist.

Your Starter Home May Not Lead To A Forever Home (In Vancouver)

If you’re going to make a decision between a starter home vs. a forever home, you must be both realistic and informed. So how’s this for some tough love: You may be able to afford a starter home in Vancouver–but your forever home may be more than a few sky train stops away.

In a study conducted by Vancity in 2015, the local institution reported that (without intervention) the price of an average detached home in the city of glass will rise to $2.1 million in less than 15 years. Talk about a buzz kill. So if you’ve already purchased your starter home, or are considering it, you may not be able to afford your forever home by the time you save what you need. Although this depends largely of course, on where you want to live.

Thinking about where you want to live in the long run is perhaps the most important factor in buying a forever home. A condo in Yaletown may seem like a great idea at 25 or 30, but you might be singing a different tune 25 years from now. Not only that, the GVA may be completely out of reach for your dream home financially. If however, you’re open to living in areas like Coquitlam, Port Moody or New Westminster, the significant savings on price may afford you the opportunity to buy the home more closer to your dreams. In addition, you must consider another point: While it may not be affordable now, how much will your forever home be in the future?

Starter Homes Can Lead To Great Investment Potential

With a vacancy rate of less than 1%, the scant availability of rental properties in Vancouver ensures an easy time finding a suitable renter. So if you’ve decided upon a starter home, remember that you can always keep it for a rental income once you’ve moved on which could offset most if not all of your cots. Building a real estate portfolio may mean that buying your forever home takes much longer than you had anticipated, but a sound real estate investment portfolio may just be your ticket to getting there in the first place.

Yearning For A Forever Home With The Heart of a Starter Home

Let’s face it, some of us are more peripatetic than others. You need to be realistic about your station in life. If you’re in a volatile or mercurial industry, forced to travel a lot for work, love to spend extended periods of time traveling, or have a growing family, you may not even know what your forever home looks like.  But if you are in the position to own your home, waiting for the perfect forever home may put you out of the market for much longer than you hope.