We movin on up, to the eastside

"Congratulations. Your offer was just accepted. You got the place."

Just like that, I'm a property owner. If I were alive 150 years ago, I'd be one of the priveleged people able to actually vote in an election in this country (as for my wife - well, it would be another 75 years or so before she'd get to mark a ballot - but that's a rant for another day).

Actually, there are a few technicalities to go over. Now I have to read through the strata documents to see what sort of mischief my future neighbors might have been up to lately. Hopefully, there are no plans to add gold plating to the door frames or excavate the parking lot for dinosaur bones.

Then will come the technicalities of consolidating my modest holdings into one big deposit check. I'm hoping its as simple as someone taking the time to call up my profile on their computer and throw me an option or two. It will be pretty lame if I have to finance this thing off of credit cards because it takes 48 hours to process the liquidation of my RRSPs.

The arcane details of the transaction aside, I'm excited to finally get a handhold on the property ladder.

I complain about the price I have to pay in Vancouver's red hot real estate market; but it will be even worse for the ones who have made the unfortunate mistake of being born five years later.

To those that come after, I can offer only this small consolation - the Lower Mainland lies on a major tectonic fault line. Eventually, the market is going to quite literally come crashing down.

There will be plenty of bargains then.

tags: Vancouver real estate, property ladder, red hot, market crash