$12K for a house in Kits? Jaw-dropping 1950s paper details home prices of years past
Could you imagine owning a beachfront Kitsilano house for just $25,500?
That was reality for Vancouverites in 1959 — and we are certainly jealous. With inflation that price would look more like $250,000 in today’s dollars. But that’s still miles away from the $3 million or so such homes go for today.
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Tyler Thorne, owner of Roka Projects, discovered the jaw-dropping prices when he uncovered a 1959 newspaper and old flyer while ripping up flooring during a home renovation in East Vancouver.
“I was joking with my friends saying the price you used to be able to buy a home for in 1959 is what you’d pay now for a bathroom renovation,” he told Daily Hive. “There’s a stark contrast and it’s quite shocking how much higher it is these days than what it used to be.”
The classified section advertised several homes for sale in desirable neighbourhoods around the city. A three-bedroom home one block from Kitsilano beach? $25,500. Four bedrooms in Shaughnessy? $29,500. Three-bedroom home near Kitsilano High? Yours for $12,000.
Tyler Thorne/Submitted
Thorne snapped some pictures of the 63-year-old papers and shared them in a video on Instagram.
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“I thought it was cool. Especially the colour magazine advertisement. It was just retro,” he said. “And just seeing the prices of what houses used to be in Vancouver is eye-opening.”
We’re just over here figuring out how to make a time machine.