Vancouver Realty Online

According to the B.C. Real Estate Association, much of the forward momentum for 2010/11 has been used up by the interest rate driven market improvements we saw in 2009:

B.C. real estate 2009 bounce-back to taper off this year, 2011

Muir characterized his forecast as 2009 ending with a “gold-medal finish, [which] will give way to a silver-medal performance in 2010.”

“Affordability is the biggest factor over the longer term,” Muir added in an interview, “because home prices in markets such as Victoria and Vancouver are trending on record levels, and mortgage rates are likely to edge higher at the end of this year and through 2011.”

“That’s going to increase the carrying cost of housing, and by extension, overall housing demand.”

Home carrying costs, the monthly mortgage payment, taxes and other fees saw a dramatic trim during the downturn that lasted through the last half of 2008 and first part of 2009, but Muir noted that that advantage is rapidly disappearing.

Please click HERE for the full article.

Vancouver Realty Online presents our Downtown Vancouver Market Update for the period running from January 18 – January 25 courtesy susankeevil.com…

Downtown Attached Market Update:

New listing supply continued to trend upwards for the third consecutive week as we saw 273 new attached listings across Vancouver West (an increase over the 238 new listings in the previous period). The downtown markets accounted for only approximately 46% of this increase, however; with the Westside markets demonstrating a slightly higher degree of new listing growth; downtown we saw 153 new attached listings (compared to 137 in the previous week).

Please click HERE for the full article.

We are proud to present our Westside market reports for the period running from January 18 – January 25 courtesy susankeevil.com…

Westside Attached Report Jan 18 – Jan 25

We witnessed 83 confirmed sales over all of Vancouver West this past week (up from 61 confirmed sales in the previous week). The Westside contributed 25 confirmed attached sales or 30% of all confirmed attached sales in Vancouver West.

Despite an upwards trend in sales transactions our listing ratio remained ‘supply dominated’ with 83 : 273 sales to listings or a 30% saturation rate.

Please click HERE for the full article.

Westside Detached Report Jan 18 – Jan 25:

Sales transactions continued to remain quite stable with 26 confirmed detached sales on the Westside (up slightly from the 22 recorded in the previous week). Dunbar again led the way with 5 confirmed sales as Kerrisdale and South Granville stood in second with 3 confirmed sales each. Demand continues to remain strong on the Westside, though with the upward trend in supply we may soon see a tighter market for sellers, and a possible increase in average days on the market for some neighbourhoods.

Please click HERE for the full article.

With extremely low lending rates, a competitive market environment, and market uncertainty it has become increasingly more important for you to understand the ‘ins-and-outs’ of the mortgage market. For a brief run-down check out Fred Langan’s piece at the Financial Post:

Why do mortgage rates move the way they do? Why don’t the rates march in lock step with other interest rates?

When the Bank of Canada lowers interest rates the big banks usually play chicken for several hours waiting to see who will drop rates first. At the last cut, the TD Bank was the first to lower prime. The others followed within the hour.

Please click HERE for the full article.