What can you get for the price of a "typical" home in New West — and what can you get for that money elsewhere in the country?
The value of a typical single-family home in New Westminster now sits at $1,543,000, according to the latest BC Assessment data — which leaves plenty of New Westminster homeowners contemplating what it means to be an on-paper millionaire.
Since we in the newsroom are always pondering the lifestyle to which we'd like to become accustomed, we thought we'd take a dive into real estate in some other similar-sized cities across Canada and see just what that $1.5 million could get us elsewhere.
Of course, we wouldn't really move, because if we did, we'd have to take everything we love about New West with us, and that simply wouldn't fit into a moving van.
But, if we were so inclined as to pool all our newsroom funds to pick up and relocate, here's what we discovered we could get for the price of that $1.5-million "typical" home in seven other cities in Canada.
(Note that we chose the communities more or less at random from a list of Canadian cities in the 70,000-to-80,000 population range, being sure to include some geographic variety.)
New Westminster
Well, we can't leave before we find out just what we could get in our own backyard. So we found a nice offering in New West for just shy of $1.5 million: a 2,293-square-foot home in Glenbrooke North, with four bedrooms (two upstairs and two downstairs). It's a quite charming, 91-year-old character home, and the location is great.
Listing: For Sale $1,498,000 | 203 SANDRINGHAM AVENUE, New Westminster, BC (zealty.ca)
Prince George
Having checked out our own backyard, we turned our sights north. In PG, we discovered that our $1.5 million can get us 78 acres of land, complete with a five-bedroom, 3,754-square-foot country home built in 1981, plus outbuildings. We'd even have a barn for future newsroom livestock.
Listing: For Sale $1,499,999 | 14295 CHIEF LAKE ROAD, Prince George, BC (zealty.ca)
Airdrie, Alta.
In Airdrie, Alta., our budget would get us this “luxury estate home” boasting more than 4,100 square feet of living space. It comes with plenty of upgrades and magazine-worthy fittings, including a chef’s kitchen, high-ceilinged bedrooms and a high-ceilinged basement that includes a rec room wired in for a projector setup and surround sound. There are five bedrooms and five bathrooms in all.
Listing: For sale: 1468 Coopers Landing SW, Airdrie, Alberta T4B4J4 - A2015749 | REALTOR.ca
Sarnia, Ont.
In this Southwestern Ontario community, our $1.5 million will get us a one-of-a-kind custom-built, 2,378-square-foot home, including a great room with cathedral ceiling, a “magazine-worthy” kitchen, a primary bedroom that’s described as a “retreat,” plus two other bedrooms and two bathrooms. (It will also put us within quick visiting distance of our assistant editor's in-laws, which will come in very handy for obtaining excellent perogies for the next newsroom potluck.)
Listing: For sale: 1337 LAKESHORE ROAD, Sarnia, Ontario N7S2M2 - 22028185 | REALTOR.ca
Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
Head to this Northern Ontario city, and our $1.5 million (actually, $1.449 million) will get us a one-of-a-kind custom-built, 3,450-square-foot home on the waterfront, complete with 100 feet of sandy beach and a plethora of features including vaulted ceilings, gas in-floor heating, kitchen with walk-in pantry/coffee bar, walk-in closets, four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.
Listing: For sale: 741 Sunnyside Beach RD, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario P6A5K6 - SM223063 | REALTOR.ca
Granby, Que.
We won’t even have to spend our whole $1.5 million for this $1.385-million property in Granby, which features a four-bedroom, 4,156-square-foot home built in 1982. We can't promise we translated the French listing completely correctly, but regardless, it appears to offer charm and comfort by the buckletload.
Listing: For sale: 524 Rue Brunelle, Granby, Quebec J2G9C1 - 9740117 | REALTOR.ca
Saint John, N.B.
We discovered we really couldn't spend our $1.5 million on real estate in St. John. We had to lower our price range considerably to come up with this $947,000 offering – the most expensive we could find in the city. Its listing extols the virtues of this rare penthouse in one of the city’s largest condo buildings: a custom-designed space with two primary suites at either end, connected by common spaces boasting all manner of high-end fittings.
But we were kind of stuck on a single-family home, so we decided we could just shell out about $600,000 on a four-bedroom, three-bathroom home on more than three acres of private waterfront property. We thought we'd enjoy the vaulted ceilings, skylights, open concept kitchen-dining area, etc. etc. Plus, we'd still have $900,000 left.
Wait: Maybe we could buy both?
Listing: For sale: 10 Dalton Court, Saint John, New Brunswick E2M6C6 - NB082496 | REALTOR.ca
Moncton, N.B.
For shy of $1.4 million, we discovered that we can lay claim to this luxury five-bedroom, 3,476-square-foot home that boasts the usual array of features you’d expect in something described as "luxury": a “chef’s dream kitchen,” a high-ceilinged living room, a sunroom with a view, giant master bedroom with ensuite … and so it goes.
Listing: For sale: 155 Boundary DR, Moncton, New Brunswick E1G5C6 - M147114 | REALTOR.ca
Of course, we know that there's a lot more to a home than just a price tag, which is why you're not likely to find us actually bidding on any of the above listings.
But for those sitting on paper fortunes who are in the mood to relocate? Well, it looks like your options are plentiful.
Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
Email Julie, [email protected]
