News: Vancouver Real Estate Market

he Residential Construction Performance Guide sets out the minimum required performance of new homes covered by home warranty insurance in British Columbia. Homeowners can search this free online Guide to help determine whether a possible defect in design, labour or materials in their new home may be covered by home warranty insurance. The Guide is designed primarily for conventional low-rise, wood-frame homes which is the predominant method of residential construction in B.C. The guide was created...

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential unit sales in the province rose 12.9 per cent to 6,533 units in July compared to the same month last year. The average MLS® residential price climbed 10 per cent to $540,877 last month compared to July 2010.

"BC home sales edged down 4 per cent from June to July, on a seasonally adjusted basis,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. “Less frenetic buying...

While the balance between home buyer and seller activity remains in an equilibrium range in the Greater Vancouver housing market, last month’s home sale total was below the 10-year average for July.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties on the region’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) reached 2,571 in July, a 14 per cent increase compared to the 2,255 sales in July 2010 and a 21.2...

 The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 1/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 3/4 per cent.

The global economic expansion is proceeding broadly as projected in the Bank’s April Monetary Policy Report (MPR), with modest growth in major advanced economies and robust expansions in emerging economies.  The U.S. economy has grown at a slower pace than expected and continues to be...

Home sellers outpaced buyers on Greater Vancouver’s Multiple Listings Service® (MLS®) in June, drawing the market back toward balance this summer.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties reached 3,262 in June, a 9.8 per cent increase compared to the 2,972 sales in June 2010 and a 3.4 per cent decline compared to the 3,377 sales in May 2011.

New listings for detached, attached and apartment...

Vancouver, BC – June 30, 2011. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its 2011 Second Quarter Housing Forecast today.

BC Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential sales are forecast to increase 5 per cent from 74,640 units in 2010 to 78,200 units this year, before increasing a further 3.1 per cent to 80,700 units in 2012.

"Home sales will post some modest gains over the next two years," said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. "However, positive...

OTTAWA, June 29, 2011 — An estimated 1.9 million households, surveyed in 10 major centres, indicated they completed renovations last year, a slight decrease from the 2.1 million households that completed a renovation in 2009. This represents 42 per cent of homeowner households (down from 50 per cent in 2009), according to the Renovation and Home Purchase Survey released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The average cost of renovations was $12,972.

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Bob Rennie's address to the Urban Development Institute (UDI). As always, information-packed statistics came thick and fast, often generating a collective gasp of amazement. This year, Rennie focused on a question that's long been part of ongoing debate around dinner tables and office water coolers : is Vancouver the best place to live as The Economist and other publications suggest? Or are we the least affordable place to live as reported by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg who ranked...

Vancouver, BC – June 15, 2011. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential unit sales in the province edged down one per cent to 7,857 units in May compared to the same month last year. The average MLS® residential price climbed 20 per cent to $596,872 last month compared to May 2010.

"Tighter mortgage rules, tepid employment growth and advance buying during the first quarter kept BC home sales on a lower note...

Home sales remained at typical springtime levels on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Greater Vancouver in May.
 
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver reached 3,377 in May 2011, a 7 per cent increase compared to the 3,156 sales in May 2010 and a 4.7 per cent increase compared to the 3,225 sales in April 2011.

Looking back further, last month’s residential...

 Greater Vancouver saw a typical, solid month of residential home sales on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in April, in contrast to the near record pace witnessed in the two preceding months.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver reached 3,225 in April 2011, an 8.2 per cent decrease compared to the 3,512 sales in April 2010 and a 21 per cent decline compared...

Vancouver, BC – April 18, 2011. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential sales in the province continued to climb higher in March. Compared to March of 2010, MLS® residential unit sales increased 11.5 per cent to 8,600 units. The average MLS® residential price rose 15 per cent to $594,157 in March compared to the same month last year.

"We continue to observe a two-speed market in BC, with surging consumer...

Activity in the Greater Vancouver housing market continued to strengthen in March with both the number of homes sold and added to the region’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) reaching near record levels.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver reached 4,080 in March 2011. This represents a 31.7 per cent increase compared to the 3,097 sales recorded in February 2011,...

 With rising costs of borrowing on the bond market the big banks (TD and RBC) decided to raise mortgage rates.

The biggest increase in rates are the 5 to 10 year closed mortgages , which will increase by 0.35 percentage points starting Tuesday.

The rate for a five-year closed mortgage will rise to 5.69 percent.

The move comes three weeks after TD cut mortgage rates, citing lower bond yields.

RBC's five-year closed mortgage moved up 0.35 percentage...

Demand for detached homes continues to be strong across Greater Vancouver, with particularly high sales volumes occurring in Richmond and Vancouver Westside.

For the past two months, the number of properties listed for sale and those sold on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Greater Vancouver outpaced the 10-year average in both categories. From a historical perspective, February’s 3,097 home sales outpace the 2,742 home-sale average recorded in the region over the last ten years....

Congratulations to all the 2010 Royal LePage Coronation West award winners as advertised in the Tri-City News this week. 

 The Greater Vancouver housing market remained in balanced market conditions in January, although higher levels of buyer demand were seen in some of the region's largest communities.

The number of properties listed for sale and those sold on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) last month outpaced the 10-year average in both categories for January.

"There was a healthy balance between the number of home buyers and sellers in our market in January, but there's always variation in...

  The Greater Vancouver residential housing market entered three distinctive phases in 2010. Continued buoyancy from the post-recession recovery began the year, followed by a summer lull and, throughout the fall, a sustained period of stability.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that total sales of detached, attached and apartment properties in 2010 reached 30,595, a 14.2 per cent decrease from the 35,669 sales recorded in 2009, but a 24.2 per cent increase from...

Greater Vancouver home sales have remained steady over the past four months, indicating stability in the residential housing market. With the MLS® sales to active listing inventory ratio indicating a buyers’ market, properties appropriately priced are selling.

According to the MLSLink® Housing Price Index (HPI), the benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver over the last 12 months has increased 4.6 per cent to $579,349 in October 2010 from $553,702 in October...

David took time out yesterday to plant a few bulbs as part of the Shelter Blooms Tulip Planting Fundraiser. Money raised goes to helping the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation - Canada’s largest public foundation dedicated exclusively to funding women’s shelters and violence prevention and education programs.  

 Today the Bank of Canada made the following press release:

OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 1/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 3/4 per cent.

The global economic recovery is entering a new phase. In advanced economies, temporary factors supporting growth in 2010 - such as the inventory cycle and pent-up demand - have largely run their course and fiscal stimulus...

UNDERSTANDING THE HST

• HST of 12% (5% federal component plus 7% provincial component) will apply to new residential housing and the PST will be eliminated completely.
• Before HST, PST had been paid on all materials used in the construction of a home. This PST was embedded in the cost of a new home. It is estimated that this embedded PST added 2% to the cost of a new home.
• With HST, builders can now claim a rebate for the provincial portion of the HST purchases, reducing the price of a new home by 2%*....

VANCOUVER, BC - Conditions in the Greater Vancouver housing market continued to favour buyers in August. Since April, prices have edged down slightly as the number of sales and the number of properties coming on to the market have been declining.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that the number of residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 2,202 in August 2010. This represents a 36 per cent decline from the 3,441 sales in August 2009, the second highest...

 I often assist clients that would like to buy a foreclosure but need to sell another property in order to buy.

When buying a foreclosure in British Columbia it's important to realise that you cannot buy a foreclosure "subject to the sale of" another property.

The majority of offers to purchase are "subject to the courts final approval". Before going to court to have your offer approved, your offer must be subject free with no conditions (i.e. no deal pending clauses).  In...