Home sales in March 2009 returned to levels witnessed at the beginning of the decade, with 2,265 sales recorded across Metro Vancouver for the month, a 53 per cent increase over February but a 24.4 per cent decrease over March 2008, when 2,997 sales were recorded.
Since 1999, March sales have increased 31 per cent, on average, over the month of February. March 2009 marks the second consecutive month that sales have outperformed the ten-year average for this month-over-month comparison.
“There’s more confidence in the housing market today than we were seeing late last year. Sales activity is rising to more typical levels given the season, and the number of homes being listed for sale is leveling off,” said Scott Russell, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
Prices are coming down in Vancouver's real estate market. If you're a buyer, the best way to get maximum value is by writing a lowball offer. As a seller lowball offers are an opportunity to get a deal done at a price that works for you. Have a look at my blog post on lowball offers in the Vancouver real estate market for more information
I'm proud to present my new Vancouver Real Estate Video Blog. I'll be discussing Vancouver Real Estate primarily, but will also touch on urban development, politics, and economics as it pertains to real estate. I'd love to hear all of your thoughts and encourage everyone and anyone to comment!
The following question was submitted through our Contact Form and we thought the Question and Answer may help other strata condo owners.
Q: How do I get on my strata council?
A: Every owner is eligible to sit on council as long as you are the registered owner and are in good standing (have no fees owing). Council members are elected at the Annual General Meeting...
Q: What resources do we have as owners for help with Strata councils that pick and choose what gets done and won't follow the rules?
A: There are a couple of answers to that question. Because we do not know the exact situation here are a couple of broad statements and ideas:
Write and submit a notice to the strata council or the strata property manager, outlining your concern and that you would like to appear before them at the next meeting to discuss the matter. Your correspondence and the strata’s response will likely be published in the next minutes that are sent out to all owners. This may help you to get new people voted in at your next AGM if the problems persist...
When you purchase a brand new property, things may be far from perfect. You may find that there are many finishing problems that you spot over time. While it may be annoying to have so many problems, especially when you pay big bucks to live in a new property, the good news is that there are some remedies available to you.
Depending on the home warranty company your builder has contracted with there are established guidelines as to what is acceptable and what your builder will need to fix. The best way to find out these guidelines is to call your home warranty company or browse their website...
The bursting of the tech bubble and September 11/2001 terrorist attack on World Trade Center has resulted in Greenspan aggressively cutting interest rates and holding them too low for too long. The asset inflation had resulted in the US housing boom built with too much liquidity and un-regulated mortgage lending. With the collapse of the housing market, US home owners lost billions of dollars in their property asset values all over the US. And, the bottom is not in sight yet!
The recent injection of liquidity by the US and the likely reduction in interest rates will not solve the current problem on US housing deflation. The correction in house prices will take many years to unwind until consumer confidence returns to the market.
Published: Saturday, August 11, 2007 by Paul Vieira, Financial Post
The International Monetary Fund said the global financial market turmoil and related credit crunch should be "manageable."
In recent days rates on the overnight market had climbed well above targets set by central banks.
The widespread credit crunch is the result of mounting defaults in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, where individuals with higher-risk credit ratings are able to obtain financing for home purchases. This spilled over to banks and investment funds, which had exposure to this market.
There are great concerns by the world financial markets that the credit sqeeze and lack of liquidity as a result of mounting U.S. subprime mortgage defaults may result in widespread economic slowdown.
The market is concerned that the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown will spread to the general economy. As reported by Newsweek Business article A Widening Credit Squeeze? is spilling over to America’s credit-card debt.
My Real Place is a newly launched community website focused on the Real Estate market.
We created My Real Place to provide consumers with access to real estate information and to have a degree of control in the realty process.
I was frustrated with what was out there to help me buy my own place and thought we could do better. I wanted to bring all aspects of the real estate market together - listings, realtors, mortgage brokers, contractors etc and do it in a novel, intuitive and easy to use way. To be able to ask questions on my own terms and in my own time, to find out easily who's selling what and where.
It's early days yet but we seem to be getting a lot of interest from people who seem to like it. We think it's awesome but I guess we would say that.
We currently have over 15,000 property listings, over 4,000 realtors and other realty professionals. We're getting over 2,000 people a day on the site so I guess we must be doing something right. We hope to roll out across Canada in the next few months so it's exciting times.
If you get chance, check it out and let us know what you think. Stop by and say hi.
With the Bank of Canada raising interest rates and Canadian Banks offering more attractive saving rates to consumers, investors will be tempted to move their real estate investments to safer savings account and GIC investments.
The Bank of Nova Scotia is advertising a 4.85%* on a 24-month GIC. The offer is only available until August 04. There are minimum deposit of $1,000 required and the GIC is non-redeemable.
ICICI Bank offers a more flexible deal, offering 4.5% on C$ deposits and 5.0% on US$ deposits on the bank’s HiSAVE Savings Account. There is no minimum deposit required and interest is calculated the daily balance and paid monthly!
The Canadian housing market is faced with:
* Rising Interest Rates
* Severe affordability problem
* Rising dollar impacting the manufacturing and resource sectors
* Softening in oil and gas prices
* Increasing new and resale home inventory
* Distinct possibility of US recession
These are negative forces that could topple the unrealistic real estate markets in Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley of BC, Calgary and Edmonton.
