Vancouver Real Estate: The Decade in Review
Remax Canada released their Decade in Review report late last week and it revealed some interesting facts about the Vancouver real estate market. From 1997 - 2007 Vancouver did NOT have the highest residential MLS® average price appreciation in Canada. In fact we were not even in the top three! Number one was .... drum roll please ......... Edmonton! Vancouver was 7th, beaten out by such cities as Calgary (#2), Kelowna (#3), Saskatoon (#4), Winnipeg (#5) and Victoria (#6). I will have to look for the Edmonton real estate bubble blogs now.
As you can see above Vancouver IS the most expensive city in the Canada. The report goes onto mention what is quickly becoming the biggest issue in real estate and housing in Metro Vancouver and that is affordability:
A million dollars no longer has the purchasing power it once had—with $2 million the new benchmark for starter luxury product in Vancouver. Upward pressure on housing values over the years clearly created affordability issues for many fi rst-time buyers who could no longer afford the traditional home. Condominium apartments and town homes represented the only affordable form of homeownership and, in spite of a rocky start—the leaky condominium stigma—sales began to soar. By 2007, multi-unit residential homes represented 40 per cent of all sales in the Greater Vancouver Area—closer to 60 per cent with new construction. (Remax, Decade in Review 1997 - 2007, Feb, 2008)
Now they are somewhat biassed, but then so am I, nonetheless they seem very enthuisiastic about Vancouver real estate going into the future. They close the section on Greater Vancouver (no one told them it is Metro Vancouver now) by saying:
Today, the Greater Vancouver Area is one of the strongest residential real estate markets in the country. Buoyed by strong economic fundamentals—low unemployment levels, attractive interest rates, real wage growth, in-migration and the upcoming 2010 Olympics—the city is ideally positioned for further growth. (Remax, Decade in Review 1997 - 2007, Feb, 2008) < bolding by me >
Overall the Remax Decade in Review 1997 - 2007 report is an interesting read for real estate professionals and consumers from across Canada.
Matthew Collinge is a Vancouver REALTOR® with Royal LePage Westside
