THE DOWNSIZER

Louanne Aplas Semi-Retired Operating Room Nurse, 62

THE STRATEGY: Sell and buy something smaller, but no rush

THE THINKING: Thirty years ago, Louanne Aplas and her husband purchased their first home on Vancouver’s east side; as their family grew, they upsized to a Kerrisdale home on a double lot. “At the time, it seemed like a stretch. We put everything we had into it,” remembers Aplas.

Their kids now have places of their own, and the couple is ready to downsize into a half duplex or smaller house; with their home’s value down between an estimated $500,000 and $750,000 from the peak, however, they’re in no rush.

“We’ve been looking around, but now we’re thinking maybe we should just fix up a few things and stay put because nobody knows really what’s going on with the market,” says Aplas. If they find a property they like, she adds, they may buy and rent it out, or rent out the house, until things settle. “It’s a crapshoot,” she says. “The Vancouver real estate market always has been.”

THE EXPERT: Veteran realtor Rod MacKay has been navigating the ups and downs of the Vancouver market since the late 1970s. He says that in the current climate, downsizers are the hardest hit, because pricier detached-home values have dropped substantially while condo and townhouse prices have, for the most part, held firm.

“Often they want to put some money in the bank and help out their kids, but now their equity has gone from, say, $2.5 million to $1.2 million,” says MacKay. “So the spread has shrunk considerably.”

What’s more, while the quieter market means they’ll likely have an easier time buying a condo or smaller house, selling their larger home could be another matter, with some properties sitting on the market for half a year or more—unless they’re sold at a fire-sale price. As a result, MacKay suggests downsizers sell before they buy or, if they can sustain it financially, buy, then rent one of the properties until the home sells, as Aplas is thinking of doing.

“Then you can say, ‘We’ve got our place rented, and we’ll wait until next year and see what happens with the market,’” explains MacKay. “You end up owning two properties, but if you’re in a position to do that and it’s not going to hurt, I think that’s a pretty strong play.”