604homesblog

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver released the June 2008 statistics yesterday and the media are having a hay-day with them. No question the market has changed. Listings are way up (18.3 per cent to 6,546 in June 2008 compared to June 2007, when 5,533 new units were listed), inventory is way up, sales are way down (42.9 per cent in ...

No time for any commentary on this today, but I thought you'd be interested. Everything below is from RBC Economics' monthly Economics Digest. You can comment below. ------ Housing market froth finally evaporating After yet another blockbuster year for Canada’s housing markets in 2007, the much-anticipated ...

This was the headline of the British Columbia Real Estate Associations (BCREA) news release today. BCREA Chief Economist says “Rising fuel and food prices are impacting the housing market, as many potential homebuyers take a wait and see approach out of concern for their household budgets.” B.C. wide unit sales were down 31% (30.5% in ...

Straight from my Daily Economic Update from RBC (I wish they would quote the source of the stats. Maybe it is RBC itself.): The new housing price index was flat in April with the annual pace of increase slowing to 5.2% down from 6.1% in March. The house-only component fell 0.1% in April and the land component posted a 0.2% increase. On a ...

Amongst all the news off increased listings and (slightly) decreased sales came the news earlier this week that housing starts are up so far this year in Vancouver. On Monday the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) announced that "preliminary" numbers indicate the starts up up 10% over the same period last year. Single family ...

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has released the May 2008 statistics and the news is pretty familiar if you've been listening to the big media lately. The first few sentences of the press release really tell the story, sales are down, listings are up. Balance seems to be the word of the moment. The Greater Vancouver housing ...

Selling a home on one of Vancouver's busy streets can be a challenge. Yesterday I was walking along West 6th Ave. on my way to lunch and I noticed that I had walked past 4 For Sale signs in about a block. I happened to have my Flip Camera with me so on my way back I pulled it out and shot a quick video about the challenges of selling a home on ...

The British Columbia Real Estate Assciation (BCREA) released a press release yesterday morning with the title More Homes for Sale - Welcome News for Homebuyers and indeed the inventory of homes for sale in British Columia is up. Sales were down last month, but only by 1.4%. Homebuyers have more options is most areas and sellers must be realistic ...

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 ...

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 ...