News: Vancouver Real Estate Market

Vancouver, BC – December 13, 2012. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that the dollar volume of homes sold through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in BC declined 24.6 per cent to $2.3 billion in November compared to the same month last year. A total of 4,680 MLS® residential unit sales were recorded over the same period, down 17 per cent from November 2011. The average MLS® residential price was $480,861, down 9.1 per cent from a year ago.

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Canada’s national housing market is shifting toward a more sustainable path, though significant differences in regional conditions continue.

Canada’s housing market so far appears to have achieved a soft landing, with cooler but fairly steady sales and pricing through the fall. Nationally, sales in October were down about 10% from strong spring levels, but are only marginally below the average pace of the past decade. Early reports for November point to more of the same.

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I am now convinced that we will never hear the end of housing bubble speak. The premise is now as firmly entrenched in popular consciousness as carbon emissions and TMZ. It has taken the form of idolatry in the blogosphere, where any countervailing narrative is demonized. It has catapulted university dropouts into media darlings because of a hackneyed webpage and an opinion. It has been tarted up by so-called experts who predict impending doom year after year, despite being completely wrong every...

   Over the past six months, the Greater Vancouver housing market has seen a reduction in the number of homes listed for sale, a gradual moderation in home prices and a decrease in property sales compared to historical averages.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties reached 1,686 on the region’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in November, a 28.6 per cent decline compared...

   Following the surprise announcement that Mark Carney will be departing to helm the Bank of England, it was back to business as usual at the Bank of Canada as interest rates were once again held constant at 1 per cent. The statement released this morning in support of the interest rate decision noted that while the global economy appears to have stabilized, it still remains vulnerable to major shocks from the US or Europe. The Canadian economy is growing at a slightly softer pace than...

   Among its many provisions, it makes significant changes to legislation including the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the National Energy Board Act, and the Species at Risk Act.

These changes affect the operation of the National Energy Board (NEB), which has potentially serious implications for property owners along pipelines.

This includes the 2,200 property owners along the Trans Mountain Pipeline, owned by Kinder Morgan, which runs from the Alberta tar sands and...