For years, it's been impossible to find a detached home in the Vancouver for less than $1 million, but it appears that's starting to change.
It's small, old and needs a lot of work, but a home in East Vancouver has dropped below the million-dollar threshold.
The house at 1578 East 22nd Ave. is priced at $998,000 – despite being assessed in July at a value of $1.26 million. The home's previous assessment was even higher, at $1.32 million.
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But a listing first posted in December is asking significantly less.
"Builders & renovators bring your vision and plans to breathe new life into this quaint 2 bedroom + den home," the ad reads.
"House needs a LOT of TLC, but has loads of POTENTIAL."
Sitting on a 3,300-square-foot lot, the 87-year-old house with a yard is in need of work. The linoleum in the kitchen is peeling, the bathroom boasts a pink sink, tub and toilet, and some of the shingles are coming off at the back.
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"It's definitely not just a lipstick reno, as we call it," realtor Shelly Smee told CTV News.
Still, relative to similar listings posted within the last few years, it's a bargain.
The house on 22nd near Knight Street first hit the market last fall at $1.15 million, but the price was recently dropped.
"In December we saw that the market had shifted and we adjusted the price to where we are now, at $998," Smee said.
She agrees the million-dollar mark is a bit of a psychological threshold for would-be buyers when they first start looking.
"Most people, when they search MLS or do a Google search, they will put a price point in," she said.
Realtor and market analyst Steve Saretsky said dropping the price could be a smart move from the sellers.
"I think in this market, particularly in detached, you want to be getting out ahead of the market because there's very few sales. In order to be competitive, you have to price aggressively," he explained.
And he said the house could start a trend, depending on what it ends up selling for.
Setting the price is often about timing. Smee said if she'd been trying to sell it last summer, she would have listed it at $1.2 million.
Now that it's under the $1-million mark, it's not just developers expressing interest.
"It will most likely be a move-up buyer from a condo, or people who've already done a smaller project and are ready to tackle something a little more significant," she said of the home's future buyer.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Shannon Paterson
