I am bit late getting these out, but here they are nonetheless. Last Friday the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) released the April statistics and earlier this week Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) released Vancouver's April housing starts.
As has been widely reported in the media around the blogosphere listings are up and sales are down in Metro Vancouver leading to softer prices. In some area this might even be resulting in prices falling while other areas are holding strong.
The REBGV News Release is attached below.
As for the April housing starts in Vancouver they bucked the resale trend and were up over last year. You can find that report here.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
Linda Leatherdale, money editor of The Toronto Sun and host of MONEY LINE on Rogers Television, Lisa da Rocha, vice president, marketing and communications, Royal LePage Real Estate Services, and David Cravit, senior vice president, marketing, The 50Plus Group, discuss how the 50-plus demographic is affecting the Canadian housing market and economic landscape.
You can listen to it here, or if you are reading this in feed reader you may have a play button right underneath this.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
Hello again! I've been on holiday and also just been a bit lazy with the blog lately. I am trying to get back on the ball, as it were. Today the British Columbia Real Estate Association released their Spring 2008 Housing Forecast. I also heard BCREA economsit Cameron Muir on CBC radio this morning discussing the BC real estate market.
The story is no suprise to anyone who has been following the real estate news lately. Supply is up, sales are down, yet prices mysteriously still up. If the other two factors remain the same prices are bound to swing down as well. Cameron has this to say:
“Most housing markets in the province are exhibiting balance between demand and supply,” added Muir. Home sales were down 14 per cent in the first quarter of 2008, while active listings were up 24 per cent. “More balance between demand and supply means less upward pressure on home prices. It also reduces the chance of multiple bids on the same home, giving homebuyers more time to investigate properties thoroughly before purchasing.”
Mr. Muir does believe that economic factors are playing a part in this change:
“Some weakness on the export side of the economy and eroding affordability will have an impact on housing demand over the next two years,”
and
“While a weak US economy is negatively impacting the forest industry and tourism, the BC economy is forecast to grow 2.5 per cent this year and 2.7 per cent in 2009, a higher rate of growth than most other provinces. Consumer spending, employment growth and net migration in the province are expected to remain robust and will continue to underpin housing demand through 2009,”
Generally it looks like they are predicting a 5-10% price increases this year, depending on the area of course, with 4-5 next year and maybe even less the next year.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
Well, that's nothing new. Vancouver real estate is in the news almost everyday.
The Vancouver Sun online has a story today titled 15 Real Estate Myths & Realities: The List. The article also includes the transcript of an interview by Christy Clark with Landcor Data Corp. founder Rudy Nielsen. The actual print article will appear in The Province tomorrow. Some of my favourites myths from the article are:
2. My home's assessment tells me what the property is worth.
3. Real estate prices in Greater Vancouver can't keep going up, they're too high already.
8. A house with a south-facing backyard is likelier to appreciate more than the equivalent house facing the other way.
12. Buying an additional property to rent out is a solid investment.
13. A home that has been staged using professional design principles to make it more appealing to buyers sells and for more.
I don't have too much to say about their answers to these myths. They seem pretty on the ball with their answers. Which is not too surprising given the experts that they consulted with (such as Rudy Nielsen, Cameron Muir, and Jennifer Podmore Russell among others).
You can see the whole list of Vancouver real estate myths here.
Listen to the interview with Nielsen here.
And see a PDF of the myths here with charts and graphs.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
So I had to get a new camera and I've been inspired to take from flower shots over the past week or two. So I hope you enjoy some of the loeverly flowers that are in bloom around Vancouver these days.
Tulip
Patch of white flowers
And finally the blossoms are out.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
The Bank of Canada cut it's overnight rate by 50 basis points,or 1/2 a percent, to 3% this morning. The major bank will most likey respond with a cut in their mortgage rates. The rationale for the cut was that:
Growth in the global economy has weakened, reflecting the effects of a sharp slowdown in the U.S. economy and ongoing dislocations in global financial markets. Growth in the Canadian economy has also moderated as buoyant growth in domestic demand, supported by high employment levels and improved terms of trade, has been substantially offset by the fall in net exports.
Will this make Vancouver real estate prices go up? Probably not this time, at least not in most areas.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
RBC reported today that they:
We look for the Bank of Canada to slash the overnight rate by 50 bps to 3% and expect the statement will reinforce policymakers’ concerns about Canada’s economic prospects given the sustained volatility in financial markets, rising cost of capital and growing downside risks to the US economy.
This should help out Vancouver home buyers who are already getting more and more selection of properties to choose from, and more time to think about their decisions in our balancing real estate market (in most, but not all areas).
Tune in tomorrow to find out just what they the BOC will do. Can you stand the anticipation?
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
Vancouver Sun writer Frances Bula has a blog called City States and on Tuesday she posted a post regarding the City's Ecodensity program and it's effect on Vancouver real estate prices. Most of the post is actually the transcript of a speech given be Vancouver housing-centre director Cameron Gray. The transcript was unfortunately copy-and-pasted from another program or website and the result is not pretty and actually loses some of the text.
He makes a quite good argument against density (ie. supply) creating demand and it's effect on affordability. My favourite line from this was one that he credits to a formers colleague:
“not all dense housing is affordable, but all affordable housing is dense”
What do you think?
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
Yet another new development in South East False Creek here. Mr Wall's Wall Financial Group will be building four condo towers and a theatre on the site of the old Vancouver Playhouse workshops on West 1st Ave, immediately adjacent to the Millenium Water site. The project is creatively named Wall Centre False Creek.
Previews start this weekend (Saturday the 19th) and sales start on May 3rd.
One thing the unit may have going for it over Millenium Water is the fact that they can build higher on that side on West 1st and therefore there should be more view units available.
If you interested in more information as it come available let me know. If you are thinking about buying on of these units you should definitely be aware of the risks involved. Take a look at this post I wrote on the subject and contact your REALTOR®.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
I came across an interesting and seemingly well thought out article in Canadian Business Magazine this morning. The title: Real estate: Nasty neighbours, by David Wolf. The subject of course is not so much will the US real estate meltdown effect the Canadian market, but rather could it happen here. His answer "... is yes, it could happen here, not least because it has happened here."
Overall though he sees a "soft landing" for the Canadian market. The three reasons he give are:
"lending didn’t get as out of hand in Canada."
"unlike the United States, Canada doesn’t look overbuilt"
"house prices in Canada don’t look nearly as stretched as those in the States did (and in some cases still do), reflecting that supply and demand in the Canadian market never did get as out of whack."
For more detail on these points and the rest of the article you can read the article online. Then come on back and let me know what you think.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
I have added an "Audio Tour" or voice-over to one of my listings and I am interested to know what you you think about it. The way the website is set up it will only play automatically the first time you view the listing (on a given computer). Every time after that you would have to push the "PLAY" button to here the audio.
Take a listen and let me know what you think in the comments section below. I've attached the audio file below or you can take a look at the listing here. Do you like the audio? Is it just annoying? Is it well done? Don't worry it is not me talking. Thanks in advance for your feedback.
I've been a lazy blogger this week. Not much in the way of big Vancouver real estate news, but I've been meaning to get out this post. On Monday this week Canadian building permit numbers for February were released and on Tuesday the Canadian housing starts for the first quarter of 2008 were released.
Building Permits Are Down
RBC reported that:
Canadian building permits came in much weaker than expected in February, dropping 1% in the month. Market expectations had been for a 1.3% increase. The disappointing picture for the near-term outlook for construction was darkened further as January’s plunge was revised down to a drop of 3.5% from the initially reported 2.9% decline. Building permits have now fallen for four consecutive months.
They did go on to say that:
The weakness was largely concentrated in Ontario where permits plunged 16%, with the non-residential component off a massive 44.9%. Residential building permits in the province provided some offset, rising 21.3%. If Ontario were to be excluded from the national total, building permits would have surged 9.8%.
Local, local, local. What is happening in Ontario is almost irrelevant to us here.
Meanwhile Housing Starts At Near Record Levels
CMHC reported that Vancouver housing starts were higher than in any first quarter since 1990. In fact multiple unit starts had their best first quarter ever with over 4000 units started.
There does seem to be a feeling out there that the market is softening. Now remember it was going 100 MPH, so slowing down does not mean stoppping, it just means slowing down. There are still lots of buyers out there and with interest rates still nice and low I don't see them going out there. The market is more local than ever with big differences in demand from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.
Have a great weekend!
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver Real Estate Agent
The Greater Vancouver real estate market saw increases listings and decreased sales last month, yet prices continued to climb. That is not how it is supposed to work, but lets reserve opinion for a month or two and see what happens. Sellers always suffer a hang-over prices inflation as they re-adjust to the idea that the demand for the product may not be there anymore.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has a new president now, Dave Watt from Royal LePage Northshore. Here is his first quote of the month:
“The market is continuing to balance, with sales and listings beginning to re-align with our 10-year averages,” says REBGV president, Dave Watt. “The selection of inventory hitting the market is wider than we have seen in the past few years, which gives prospective buyers more choices.”
Time is short today so I will leave it to that. The report is attached below and the reports for the last year can be found on the Statistics and Reports page of my website.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
Best Health magazine (from the people at Reader's Digest) has ranked Vancouver as the healthiest city in Canada. Vancouver ranked at the top of 5 of five of their 16 categories and was in the top 5 in 5 others. Here is what they said:
Nestled between B.C.’s Coast Mountains and the Georgia Strait, Vancouver took the top spot in five different categories, and had a top-five finish in five others. The city boasts the lowest number of overweight residents, the lowest rates of heavy drinking, the best community care, a tight smoking ban (there was a five-way tie for toughest), and is privileged to have the highest number of general and family physicians per 100,000 people.
Consistently ranked among the best of the best for its livability by organizations such as The Economist Intelligence Unit and the Mercer Quality of Life Survey, Vancouver has a lot to offer, affirms resident Alisa Smith, 36, co-author of The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating. For one, it’s not hard to find healthy food. “There are a bunch of different organic food stores and lots of farmers’ markets, and in the last two years they’ve even opened a winter market,” she says. It’s a great city for a delicious stroll, too. “I like to walk along the oceanfront to Granville Island,” says Smith. “You can buy from the fishermen at the docks. Plus, Go Fish restaurant nearby serves some of the freshest fish tacos and salmon soups that you can find.”
To come up with their findings they looked at 16 different areas of health and "went beyond the typical mortality stats to measure the comprehensiveness of smoking bans, the availability of OB/GYNs and mammography, and other issues uniquely important to Canadian women." We even did well for number of available doctors. If anyone knows a good GP in Vancouver that is taking patients let me know.
You can find the Canada’s Healthiest Cities article here and the chart of their findings here.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR®
The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) has launched a new website for REALTORS® and consumers all about "green" real estate called the Green Toolkit (for REALTORS®). I don't know why they had to include the "for REALTORS®" part because it looks like the site is full on good info for anyone interested in having a greener home. The first sentence in the email they sent me about the site states the goal of the site is to:
educate real estate professionals and consumers about “green” real estate and buildings in BC
Wondering what green real estate is, well, they have the answer:
Broadly defined, the term “greener real estate” describes an environmentally and socially responsible perspective of land, anything permanently affixed to it such as buildings, and the related business of real estate. This greener perspective can be summarized in three main elements:
Efficiency and reduced use of energy, water and materials
Health as it relates to a place’s occupants, surroundings and the stewardship of the environment
Cost and value, including initial and ongoing equations
Check out the site and let me know what you think below.