Vancouver may finally complete her annexations.

Vancouver is way behind on annexing large swaths of urban density unincorporated neighborhoods. It seems the council is seriously considering a one time "go big or go home" approach that would swallow the entire urban growth boundary. 

I am actually in favor. The State of Washington in 1990 passed legislation aimed at doing just what Vancouver may do now. Many years ago Mayor Pollard attempted to complete the Orchards annexation and ended up in a duel to the death with the County. The whole thing stalled out. Since then Vancouver has been taking little bites out of the large UGB slowly and well behind schedule. 

The council is looking at four options the last of which is aunt just nibbling away like they have for the last 20 years. The other three are big chunk acquisitions, one adding 75,000 residents to the city, another adding 95,000 residents to the city, the third and my personal favorite the full enchilada, the entire UGB adding 171,000 resident to the city.

Keep in ming the City isn't growing new residents, they are in fact already here simply outside the city boundary. It is essentially a jurisdiction change. Cities are much better suited to managing urban areas and counties are really supposed to run the rural areas. The Vancouver UGB is no longer rural, it is mostly suburban housing areas with a few commercial sections.

If they select option three, and they should do just that, the city would officially have 380,000 people placing it ahead of well known "big cities" like, Pittsburgh PA, Cincinnati OH, New Orleans LA, Cleveland OH, and several others. 

This annexation option would put Vancouver on the radar on par with big cities including our neighbor Portland as far as companies looking to expand or relocate. It would be a boon to the local job market.

Vancouver has done an effective job increasing housing density and that will help younger people get into the homeownership market.

Is Daylight Savings Time Real Estate Time?

This article was published yesterday on "Urban Living in the Couv"

We are now more than a week into Daylight Savings time. I held two open houses for a listed condo at Parkview recently. The first was on Saturday March 8th the day before the time switched. It was a beautiful day with the Farmer's Market open and lots of foot traffic through the Vancouvercenter Plaza. I was out there 'barking' like I was in the red light district in the 1970s. "check out my open house...right here. overlooks the park..." I managed to get a few groups of people to look at the unit and handed out a gazillion flyers, but despite my online advertising I didn't get a single person that came specifically to see the unit. You could say the success of the open was 'all me' :) The following week I decided to do Sunday instead of Saturday. In the winter months the Farmer's Market is only open on Saturday so there was less traffic. The weather was also damp and chilly with a temp around 45º. I was thinking this is gonna be a disaster. I loaded the FEMA hotline into speed dial, just in case ;) I did the same advertising as the previous week and I got twice as many people though the open house and all but one group came specifically to see the unit via my ads. No barker required.

OK this is literally the definition of an anecdote and it could have just been a random action of the universe. But I notice every year right after Daylight Savings time arrives, there is an uptick in real estate activity. Even when the weather is more like January than springtime, they come. I think Daylight Savings time is a 'trigger' whether conscious or unconscious, people start engaging the world a little differently. Daylight Savings time is Real Estate time or so it seems to me. 

This morning as I was prepping to write this article and updating the Urban Living website with data from the local MLS, I noticed a significant uptick in new listings and new pending sales. Hmm, my anecdotal experience has legs me thinks. 

Esther Short Park and the Vancouver Waterfront definitely have massive increases in visitors, activities, and a general "buzz" as we move from the dark and dreary winter into the 'funshine' of spring and summer. Now is a great time for people considering a move into the urban core of the metro area's hottest urban living neighborhoods. Yeah that's us right here in America's Vancouver.

Take a look at the active listings in the area click here.