Vancouver Real Estate News: The Spring Break Review
I was away for Spring Break last week. Got back on Tuesday but have been busy catching up the last couple of days. Now its time to get you, and me, up to speed on the latest real estate news. The trend seems to be towards analysis of the future of the market and whether or not the boom is over.
The Globe and Mail's Report on Business reported yesterday that "Condominium sales to slow in '08: survey." The story is based on the widely reported Genworth Financial Canada and the Conference Board of Canada survey. They tal about how sales slowing and price increases slowing "... could finally bring a bit of relief to the country's priciest markets, Vancouver and Victoria, where condos are the only option for many buyers." I just don't see it this year though. Sure it could take some pressure off if prices stop going up, but to have any significant effect on affordablitly prices would have to actaully fall and that does not look too likely this year.
In a story headlined "Experts split over future housing prices in Canada" CTV.ca contrasts the opinions of CMHC economist Ted Tsiakopoulos who sees little chance of a U.S.-style "housing market meltdown" with those of the author of the recently released book "The Greater Fool: The Troubled Future of Real Estate" by Ontario MP Garth Turner. As you can guess from the title Garth is a more than a little but less enthusiastic about the future of the Canadian real estate market.
The Canadian Press also released a story on this subject with input from Mr. Turner with the headline: "Is U.S.-style housing crash a foreshadowing of Canada's future?"
Here is a moderatly useful article from the Tri-City News headlined "Don’t feel too ‘bubbly’ about real estate" that offers some advice real estate investing
Translink's plan to look at real estate a source of income seemed to be big news last week, although I don't quite see what all the excitment is about. There was "TransLink looking at real-estate revenues" and Bob Rennie even had something to say in "Condo king chimes in on Translink's real estate plan"
Even earlier last week though the Globe and Mail reported on latest forecast from the Credit Union Central of B.C. with the headline "Credit unions warn of housing woes as prices set to soar." The report predicts up to a 12% price increase this year with a softening to around 5% next year.
At the beginning of last week the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reported that "BCREA - Home Sales Slip in February"(pdf). BCREA economist was quoted in the news release as saying:
“BC home sales fell for the second consecutive month, marking the slowest start to a year since 2003,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. “While it’s still too early to call a trend, fewer home sales and an increase in active listings may be pulling the BC housing market toward balanced conditions.”
“Strong employment and wage gains over the last year continue to underpin housing demand,” said Muir. The number of unit sales recorded in the month was 13 per cent above the February average from 1998 to 2007. “However, continued erosion in housing affordability may be taking a toll on the ability-to-pay for some buyers.”
Back to the boom or bust stories here was an interesting story from the Vancouver Sun, " 'Tough to quantify' any effect on housing market"
And lastly that daly rag 24 Hours had a story last week about real estate in the Yaletown/ False Creek North area. The headline: There is only one original.
Now we are all caught up and I will try to get a more fun Friday post out later, but first I must run out to show some real estate.
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver REALTOR® serving all of Vancouver