We are very excited that the construction is now under way and we hope to release more homes in this community soon. Stay tuned for more information!

                                                                                                       - Katelyn

Blog Post #2

Aprill 12th, 2012

“Wow, that is some great dirt” my boss John tells me as we take a casual stroll through the depths of Bloom’s construction site.
“Really? Great dirt?” I reply, clearly skeptical, as we make our way through a never ending puddle of sludge.  The geotechnical report
indicates that a variety of subsurface materials including topsoil, weathered till and glacial till are presumed to be on site. I didn’t know it at the time, but the latter is what both I and my boss were referring to. You see, the glacial till found onsite is
quite dense and is primarily comprised of a very fine silty sand. When dry, it is firm and easily maintains its form- a developer’s dream when it comes to digging a 16,000 cubic metre hole. “Yes, excellent dirt… Check it out” as he points to what will eventually be Bloom’s parkade ramp  “Yes, excellent dirt…check it out” as he points to what will eventually be Bloom’s parkade ramp. Shifting my gaze from the muck at my feet, I was surprised to see that the access ramp was completely self sufficient. Consisting of nothing other than a pile of compacted dirt, it is interesting to note that up to sixty tandem trucks weighing approximately 12.5 tonnes utilize this ramp each day. Now don’t be fooled by the steel bars lining the bottom of the ramp as these are actually a few feet from the slope and provide zero support.  In fact, this line of Reinforcing Steel or Rebar is set to become a parkade wall, but we will get to that a bit later.

The presence of glacial till also influences our strategy when it comes ensuring the stability of the site’s retaining walls.  Depending on the spot, our excavation efforts can extend over 18ft vertical feet and it is always nice when a periphery wall of this magnitude does not collapse on us or the development itself.   Shoring is a process that is required when you dig a hole that results in a vertical wall. For Bloom, this is practically the entire circumference of the site as the parkade footprint extends within feet of our property line. In order to ensure the stability of the wall, 20ft. long metal rods known as anchors are shot into the dirt wall using an air track drill and then secured in place.

Wire meshing is then fastened to the wall to eliminate any loose dirt from falling and a thin layer of concrete is sprayed to complete the process. When a site consists of glacial till, the exterior dirt periphery is significantly sturdier and more reliable. This is the conclusion our Geotechnical Engineer came to after conducting his site inspection.  A certified professional when it comes to the engineering of earth materials, the Geotech, like most engineers, is responsible for conducting site inspections to ensure that we are building according to his requirements. Luckily for us, the presence of the glacial till eliminated the need for shoring in certain areas and as a result we were able to cut back on 3000 square feet of shoring which resulted in notable cost and time savings.

So now that you have been brought up to speed about the benefits of this great dirt, let’s take a look at what happens when it gets wet. Provided that the soil is left to its own devices and not disturbed, it manages to maintain its form quite well. It is a different story however once the trucks and excavators get to work. When disturbed, glacial till essentially transforms into liquid dirt. It is more difficult to excavate and due to the additional weight from the water, creates heavier truck loads. Most trucks that we use can carry up to 14 tonnes and as a result, this additional water weight could results in more trips to the dumping ground.

The primary concern for us however, is where the runoff from all this water goes. The silt has such a fine texture that it combines effortlessly with flowing water and the result is a cloudy liquid that is not suitable to flow into the city’s storm sewer.  Many of these sewers empty into rivers and lakes and it is important that this water be properly filtered in order to ensure that the ecosystems of these bodies of water are protected. The solution for this was a sediment control system powered by a 2.5 kilowatt generator. Presented to us by our civil engineer, this is quite the sophisticated setup and consists of four primary steps. The first is a pump-out storage basin. It is essentially a sump, surrounded by crushed rock in order to filter out any large dirt particles right from the get go. This is where the runoff is held until it is ready to be pumped through the Flocculent Tube. Once in the tube, the water goes through a process known as flocculation where a chemical is bound to the sediment in order to make it larger and heavier. Once pumped into the settling tank, this additional weight facilitates the filtration process as the dirt tends to settle and be caught by the straw curtains (AKA filters) a lot easier. This tank also boasts a weir setup, which is essentially high and low level barriers that serve to alter the flow of the water. These barriers maximize the distance the water must travel in order to further increase the settling efficiency.

Once through the tank, the final step involves using a sand filter to eliminate any remaining fine sediment before the water is transferred to the city storm sewer. Now, you might be thinking that this system seems powerful enough to filter water runoff from a large industrial site and initially, in all truthfulness, we did think it seemed a bit extreme. However for those of you who have been here in the winter, you know that British Columbia experiences its share of rain and when combined with an 80 gallon per minute underground stream, you can be sure that we were thanking our lucky stars that we had this setup on-site. Yes, you heard me…a stream and a powerful one at that! To put it into perspective for you, this stream could fill an average bathtub to the brim in less than one minute and that is a lot of water to find consistently flowing through your site.

Primarily stemming from the South East corner of the site, our approach has been to pump the clear, untouched water through a filter and directly into the closest storm sewer. Dirty water that we are unable to catch before it travels the length of the site is then passed through our sediment control system to ensure that all dirt particles are removed before being transferred to the storm sewer. To ensure that the system is functioning in accordance with city standards, bylaw inspectors as well as our civil engineer periodically pop by for an inspection. From the photo above, you can get an idea of just how efficient the system really is. This photo was taken after a rainy week and required two full truck loads to remove all the sediment.   Moving forward, our hope for this stream is to be able to free flow it through an underground pipe along Langside Avenue all the way down to the storm sewer at the edge of Burquitlam Park. Given that our site slopes roughly 28 feet from the East to West, our goal is to use the incline and avoid using a pump to get the water up to the manhole, which is located at street level.  This design is still a work in progress, but I will be sure to keep you posted on our final solution. I have included a site plan below meant to provide you with a better understanding of what I am referring to from a bird’s-eye view. The buildings along the top of the image represent an elevation of Bloom from a Southerly point of view. In order to envision the final development, imagine these buildings being transposed onto the parkade footprint. Click to enlarge.

Did you know that in total 35,000 tonnes of dirt were removed from the site during excavation? This dirt was transferred to an unproductive lowland site in Port Moody and will be used to infill the area, which is set to eventually become a park.

This is the story of a girl from Montreal, who made the big move out West and joined a real estate development team in Vancouver. A complete newbie to the construction world and the countless associated particulars, this will be an account of my journey through my very first project. If you have ever wondered just what goes into creating ‘Home Sweet Home’, you will likely enjoy this.

– Katelyn

Blog Post #1

March 20th, 2012

The project’s name is Bloom and once complete it will be a 79 home stacked townhome community, abutting Burquitlam Park. It will offer private gardening plots, oversized patios and all the fancy specs that one would want in their new home. As a buyer, this is often the type of information that we are privy to and typically interested in. But how will this 80 thousand square foot project be built and what kind of stuff goes into building it? Allow me to bring you up to speed.

Demolition at Bloom began back in November 2011. The entire process took just over 3 weeks to complete and what originally began as six single family homes quickly transformed into a wreckage of rubbish. After separating out the recyclables from the junk, 70% of the demolition debris and 100% of the timber was in fact recycled. It is worth mentioning that this is common practice amongst developers these days, which is great to hear.

Moving forward, the final step in the demolition process was to remove the top soil and prepare the site for excavation. Once complete, we were ready to break ground. Unfortunately, despite our demolition crew’s speedy destruction skills we were still waiting for the issuance of our building permit. Permits, as I have quickly learned, are not the easiest things to get…

Fast forward to today and despite our best efforts, still no Building Permit (BP). I must say, it is quite the complex affair and you might be surprised at how many municipal departments and coordinating efforts are involved.Ensuring that we build our homes in accordance with the BC Building Code is of course at the top of our priority list, but after 6 months, I must admit that we had hoped that the process would be complete. Luckily, an interim alternative presented itself and we decided to apply for a Foundation Permit (FP). The FP is similar to the BP to the extent that we can start digging, however it does limit us from building up. Essentially, with an FP we can dig the hole and pour the foundation but only up to the suspended slab, also known as the roof of the underground parkade. Thankfully, this gave us plenty of work to do. When the New Year rolled around, the construction guys were out in force and right before my eyes Bloom began to transform into a bona fide construction site.

For those of you who appreciate FUN FACTS, these are for you.

Did you know that it takes 11 design engineers and architects to create a development project? For Bloom, we hired the following engineers and consultants: Electrical, Mechanical, Geotechnical, Environmental, Civil, Structural, Envelope, Code, Landscape, Interior Design and Architect.

Did you know that it took close to 2 years from the time we decided to purchase the first home on Langside Avenue until construction began this year? A HUGE portion of this time was allocated to rezoning, development permits and building permits.

Over the past 20 years, many aspects have affected the affordability of a homebuyer in Vancouver. Below are a few that I think are worth mentioning.

The first thing that we have to look at when considering affordability is the evolution of how we live.  Vancouver has evolved into a world class city and like other world class cities, it is not reasonable to expect that the average person is going to live in a single family home near the city centre.  Accordingly, it does not make sense to use single family homes in the City of Vancouver as our benchmark for affordability.

The second consideration is that tax rates have decreased considerably in the past 20 years.  In 1991, the top marginal tax rate was 54% and it kicked in at $60,000.  Today the top marginal tax rate is approximately 42% and kicks in at around $130,000.  Subsequently, all of the other tax rates and threshold levels have been adjusted accordingly.  It is important to note that whenever there is a calculation of % of income going to a certain item, the pre tax income is always used.

Another consideration is that average incomes have grown from $76,900 in 1991 to $92,600 in 2009. Now upon a first glance, you might think that this number sounds high. But this is in fact the average family income of a typical candidate interested in purchasing a home. What I have done here is removed all elderly family income from the equation as individuals in this category are not generally the ones looking to buy a new home.  This number was found on the Statistics Canada web site.  The new average provides us with a more accurate view of family income and how it affects affordability.

Other aspects to consider include the substantial decrease in interest rates (more than 11% for a 5 year fixed mortgage in 1991 vs. 2.98% this year) as well as the increase in the maximum amortization period. In 1990 the maximum amortization period for a mortgage was 25 years.  That has now been increased to 30 years.

So, how have the aspects above really influence affordability? Let’s take a look.

Based on an average income of $92,600, a homebuyer today would be able to purchase a home in the $585,000 range. However in 1991, when homes were considered “more affordable”, this same house would have been worth $183,000.  Your next question should be: Do houses today really cost more or less than 3.25 times their 1991 cost?  This is a very hard question. One example is a bungalow in Richmond that I sold in 1992 for $235,000 and that I could buy today for $750,000.  That is 3.2 times.  Another example would be the $185 per square foot price for a new condo on Broadway that I worked on in 1990/1991 that would now command around $600 per square foot – 3.24 times 1991 values.  And remember that in 1991 we didn’t put in Kohler fixtures, Toto toilets, Quartz countertops or hardwood flooring so an adjustment should really be made for quality upgrades.

Canadian banking practices assume that 32% of one’s gross income is spent on housing costs. This 32% is meant to cover such expenses as principal & interest payments, property taxes, heating costs and condo fees. Today, a person buying the $585,000 home would be paying the same 32% of gross income for their housing costs as in 1991 however they would be earning a higher income, paying a lower marginal tax rate and ultimately spending less of their after tax income.

If you are an average British Columbian with a family income of around $92,000 and you’ve been prudent and saved up a 10% down payment for a home, you can afford a home that costs around $600,000.  By doing a quick search on MLS, I found over 1200 single family houses for sale in Metro Vancouver (that goes out as far as Langley) for less than $600,000.  The benchmark price for a townhouse in Metro Vancouver is $472,800 and for an apartment style condominium it is $373,000.

I’m not going to say that housing is inexpensive.  I’m not trying to say that buying a home is easy.  All I’m saying is that things aren’t getting worse.  I may be showing my age, but I remember a song by an old guy named Billy Joel that goes like this: “the good old days weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems”

JR

Well, I’ve been tracking the market pretty closely and haven’t seen any drop in prices so logically I figured that people must be making more money.  Indeed, that was part of it however it is what came next that I found most humorous.

“There were some fairly significant price increases in late 2010 and early 2011” said RBC senior economist and report co-author Robert Hogue. “Some of the factors [behind] the price surge were very strong activity in highly priced properties, which skewed the average [upwards]. Some of that has been reversed.”

So… there are now a fewer number of homes priced over $3,000,000 selling in the Vancouver market and that makes housing in this city more affordable?

I’m sure you all feel better now…

Let me paint you a picture. Imagine the two markets below.

Note the only difference between them is that the more affordable market (Market B) has 2 fewer sales over the $3 million mark than Market A.  Now, I do admit that a 25% decrease in the average sale price of a home does appear to be more affordable. But let’s look at the bigger picture. People whose decisions are influenced by “affordability” are not buying homes in the 3 million dollar range and as you can see, homes priced in the $300k range have not changed at all.

Of course, the key thing to remember is that last year’s announcements that Vancouver was unaffordable were made by these same folk and were based on the same lousy assumptions:  A bunch of houses over $3,000,000 were selling, which resulted in an increase in the “average price per home” and just like that…Vancouver was once again, completely unaffordable.

I’ve been reading commentary on affordability (or lack thereof) since I started in this business in 1987 and I have read countless articles arguing both sides of Vancouver’s affordability issue. If there is one thing that I have learned throughout all of this, it is that statistics can be (and very often are) manipulated to reflect the message that the writer wants to present.

My next report will talk about how I see affordability.

JR.

It is generally accepted that inVancouver, a balanced market involves having approximately 15,000 homes listed on MLS.  This provides buyers with options without resulting in a glut of available housing on the market.  In September 2008, listings topped out at just under 20,000 and we all know what happened there.  Buyers, paralyzed by an abundance of options and worried about the teetering economy, became incapable of completing a purchase. Sellers, discouraged and unable to sell, began to remove their homes from the market. But by July of 2009, the listing count had dropped below 13,000 and the market was in an absolute frenzy!  The dwindling supply instilled a fear of missed opportunity forcing buyers off of the sidelines and into the market.  This resulted in record sales volumes and a spike in home prices.  Many buyers went as far as completing a deal without even having the opportunity to commission a home inspection. Enough said.

Market psychology is fascinating and the beginning of 2011 is a great example of this.  Low listings at the beginning of the year lead to record and near record sales for the first 3 months. Prices rose and sales volumes were around 20% higher than the 10 year average.  Encouraged by these numbers, sellers hit the market with a drastic rise in listings. Due to the now abundant selection of homes at their disposal, buyers no longer felt any pressure to make an offer on the first home they saw and sales slowed. For the next 3 months, sales volumes remained at or just below the 10 year average.  When the listing count reached 16,000 (or above the equilibrium point), sales dropped to about 85% of the 10 year average and a small dip in housing prices was observed.

It appears to me that we are heading for another period of low listings and competition among buyers for the available product.  It hasn’t arrived yet and probably won’t be obvious until March or April but if you are in the market for a home, you could do a lot worse than buying that place you’ve had your eye on for the last couple of months.

I’ve been wrong before and I’ll be wrong again… This is just the way I see things. JR.

What I find interesting about this projection is the rationale.  The report isn’t full of conventional wisdom or hyperbole about how Metro Vancouver real estate isn’t affordable but is based on a very simple and easy to understand concept.  Our population is going to grow.  This isn’t a news flash.  It has been growing steadily for the past two decades and will continue to do so. What does this mean for the real estate market you might ask? It means that the demand for housing is going to continue to grow and someone is going to have to fill it.

Every year in Metro Vancouver, the natural population is set to increase by 5,000 people and an additional 35,000 choose to make the move and call it their home. Today, the average household size in Vancouver is just over 2 people per home, meaning that we need to build almost 20,000 housing units per year to fulfill this increase in demand.  The problem is that we just haven’t been doing that:  Only 8,339 homes were built in 2009, 15,217 in 2010 and this year, we are on track for around 18,000. Similarly, the 10 year trend reveals that we have been averaging just over 15,000 new homes per year.  It doesn’t take an award winning economist to figure out that when the demand exceeds the supply, prices rise.

This may seem like a very simplistic argument and I agree that it is.  There are a great number of other factors that impact housing prices.  Affordability, employment, cost of land, labour and materials, government regulations and levies.  Each of these will be a topic of future posts, but today I thought that I would kick things off with the basics.

On Friday, Metro Vancouver mayors voted in favour of a transit plan that includes expanded services and the Evergreen Line. Provincial Transport and Infrastructure Minister Blair Lekstrom has confirmed his government will “get shovels into the ground” within weeks or months.

The vote to raise regional gas taxes by two cents, passed with 70-per-cent support. The provincial government is committing $583 million to funding the Evergreen Line. Translink will provide $400 million and the federal government will contribute $417 million.

So what exactly are the direct impacts of transportation improvements on real estate? In it’s simplest answer, accessibility drives real estate prices.

Current examples closer to home is the recent rejuvenation of the Cambie Corridor and the Cambie Village area. Since the Canada Line opened, real estate prices in these areas have soared. Developable land has become extremely scarce, driving prices higher and higher. Going back in time, the same impact was felt when the Alex Fraser Bridge opened.

With gas prices rising globally, there has become a greater demand for public transport. Commute time, commute costs, and accessibility, are now critical determinants for potential homebuyers. As Campbell and Tennant, authors of “The Gateway Effect” explain, residents now measure their commute distance in minutes not kilometres. This is a process that leads to higher demand for properties that are located farther from their jobs, yet closer in terms of commute time.

Positive Impacts of Light Rail On Residential Property Prices, Housing Value & Rent:

• In studies conducted across North America, the values of homes in neighbourhoods close to mass transit had premiums of up to 40%

• The positive effects of proximity to rail transit, is limited to homes located within a one-half mile (800 metres) radius of stations. *Note Bloom’s prime location, which is a 300 metres from the future Burquitlam Station.

• The closer a home is located to rail stations has been found to increase rent prices, and increase the resale value.

• Studies have found that rent decreased by approximately 2.5% for every one-tenth of a mile (160 metres) distance from the station. *Again, note Bloom’s prime location, which is a 300 metres from the future Burquitlam Station.

Check it out, Bloom was featured in the Vancouver Sun! Click here to view the article.

Our Grand Opening was your first opportunity to see all that Bloom has to offer. The overall response was extremely positive, and people were excited to learn more about Bloom and the surrounding community.

Spacious layouts, the parkside location and the quiet cul-de-sac are just a few of the reasons our buyers are loving Bloom.  Bloom is just a leisurely stroll from major transit routes, amenities and shopping. With the completion of the New Evergreen line just a few years away, this new rapid transit line will connect Coquitlam to Vancouver via Port Moody and Burnaby. Bloom is located only 300 metres away from the proposed Evergreen line station, where residents in this burgeoning community will experience accessibility and convenience first hand.

Like a tiny seed that grows into an apple tree, a home at Bloom is part of something much bigger. It’s a chance to establish roots in a community on the verge of blossoming. This is a neighbourhood that promises to bear fruit for years to come.

Our 1, 2 & 3 bedroom homes are affordably priced from the mid-$200,000′s. We are excited to announce that our 10 suite special incentive release sold out. Due to the success of this weekend, Springbank has agreed to apply this incentive to another 5 suites!

Our Sales Centre is open everyday, except Friday’s from 12 – 5pm.

Location: 530 – 526 Clarke Road, Coquitlam (Next to Shoppers Drug Mart)

For more information, please email info@liveatbloom.com or call   604.939.8808