Ten years ago*, if you put $100,000 into real estate, you wouldn’t just have a home—you’d have $600,000 today. That’s not wishful thinking; that’s exactly what happened in Port Moody.
In 2015*, the average home in Port Moody sold for about $612,000. Today, that same home is worth roughly $1.23 million—and that’s in what many would call a slower market. In other words, values doubled in just one decade.
With a $100,000 down payment, that translates into half a million dollars in profit—tax-free*—in only 10 years. Put another way, that’s nearly 20% per year, compounded.
Now, let’s put that in perspective:
- The S&P 500 returned about 12% annually over the same period.
- A savings account? Closer to 1–2% per year.
- A GIC? Maybe 3–4%, if you were lucky.
For generations, the advice was simple: invest in your child’s education so they could one day afford a home. But in Metro Vancouver, even highly paid professionals are finding themselves priced out. That raises a new question: maybe the smarter investment isn’t tuition, but a title deed.
Because the truth is clear: time IN the market beats timing the market—every single time.
So as you think about your family’s future, ask yourself this: Where will prices be 10 years from now? And more importantly—will you own a piece of it?
*A Few Notes on the Numbers:
- Mortgage payments aren’t factored in. Why? Because whether you rent or own, you need somewhere to live. If you rent, you’re paying your landlord’s mortgage. If you own, you’re paying your own. From a profitability standpoint, these costs largely cancel each other out. The real comparison is what happens to that $100,000 down payment when it’s invested in real estate versus elsewhere.
- Principal residence exemption. The calculations assume the property is your principal residence, which means capital gains are exempt from tax under current Canadian law.
- Timeframe and data source. The period considered is January 2015 to June 2025, using rolling average sale prices for all property types in Port Moody from the GVR Realtor’s Stats Centre—a highly reputable source. I used January 2015 because it marked the start of the year, and June 2025 because that’s when I ran the numbers (even if it took me a little longer to write the blog). Different start and end points can shift the exact figures, but the trend remains remarkably consistent: property values in Port Moody have historically doubled—or come close to doubling—every decade.