The Vancouver housing market for real estate and rentals has been immensely intriguing in regard to how expensive it has become to live in or own property in Vancouver. The most recent Stats Can statistics exhibit some unbelievable information and figures about the prices of housing in the city of Vancouver.

As seen is Andrew Yan’s Urban Research Portfolio (Yan, 2016), the $1 million dollar line in Vancouver is almost gone and has nearly disappeared, as it barely exists anymore in the city. Previously, there was a clear and distinguishable $1 million dollar line between Vancouver’s West-side and East-side, in which the West-side was more expensive; however, in the present, the $2 million dollar line has become the one that distinguished the East and West of Vancouver. Yan explains that “from the 2016 Assessment, 91% of all single family properties in the city have total assessment over $1 million compared to 65% in 2015” (Yan, 2016).

• Here is a map of the $1 million dollar line in Vancouver and the differences around the different areas of the city:
• Now, here is a map of the $2 million dollar line in Vancouver and the differences around the different areas of the city. Note how it varies from the $1 million dollar map, as the West-side is evidently more expensive:
• Finally, here is a map of the total housing assessment value in $1 million dollar increments in Vancouver, illustrating the various differences of housing prices around the different areas of the city:

Therefore, after assessing these figures and statistics, I decided to examine whether there was a correlation to housing prices and rental prices due to factors such as crime and transit. I wanted to analyze the city’s difference of housing values and prices such as the difference in the $2 million dollar line, and to convey why the different areas of Vancouver vary so much with these prices in real estate and rentals.

 

Hence, using multiple parameters, I created different pricing surfaces that were used to model crime versus housing prices in real estate, as well as transit versus rental prices of rented dwelling units. Then, using both Census Tracts and Dissemination Areas, as well as compiling my own metadata of crime and transit, I analyzed Vancouver’s potential impacts on housing prices due to crime and potential correlation of rental prices to transit. 

Thus, in order to scrutinize this information and conduct a GIS analysis, I identified the data-sets appropriate for my GIS inquiries and developed ways to project and manipulate those data-sets. As a result, I created a number of maps depicting the relationships that this project aims to convey. With my resulting final map representations along with the findings and results, I have been successful in deriving an analysis that conveys the correlation between rental prices and transit, as well as the impacts that crime has on housing prices.

 

 

Andrew Yan. (2016).The End of the $1 million Line for Single Family Homes in the City of Vancouver.  http://bingthomarchitects.com/btaworks/the-end-of-the-1-million-line-for-single-family-homes-in-the-city-of-vancouver/