Metro Vancouver home prices rise 7.5 per cent

November 3, 2011

Metro Vancouver house prices are still rising

Metro Vancouver house prices are still rising

Benchmark home prices in Metro Vancouver have increased 7.5 per cent to $622,955 in October 2011 from $579,349 in October 2010, according to the latest monthly report from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

However, since reaching its peak in June of $630,921, the benchmark price – that of a typical home – for all of the residential properties in the region has declined 1.3 per cent.

The report also said that sales of detached properties in October reached 974, which is about the same as October 2010.

In addition, new listings for all properties totalled 4,374 in October, which is an 18.3-percent increase when it is compared to October 2010, when 3,698 properties were listed for sale, and a 23-per-cent decrease compared to the 5,680 new listings in September 2011.

The total number of properties that are listed for sale now sits at 15,377, which is 9.3 per cent higher than the 14,075 properties that were listed for sale during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the benchmark price of a single family detached home in the Fraser Valley in October was $530,335, an increase of 4.9 per cent compared to $505,759 in October 2010 and on par with the price in September, according to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.

Source: Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun

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A strong economy sees a rise in the construction of new Metro Vancouver homes

October 12, 2011

Metro Vancouver sees an increase in construction

Metro Vancouver sees an increase in construction

Metro Vancouver’s new housing starts are on the upswing, rising to 1,783 in September over 1,644 in the same month last year, with most activity in the multi-family category, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

The reason for the multi-family strength, according to CMHC’s senior market analyst for Metro Vancouver, Robyn Adamache, is two-fold: builders are increasingly confident taking on larger multi-family projects, and buyers are skeptical of higher-priced detached homes because they want to avoid the HST threshold of $525,000.

“On the single-family side, we’re seeing a decline this year,” Adamache said in an interview after the report was released Tuesday.

“When the economic recovery was fragile, builders were more comfortable doing single-family starts rather than a large project. It was a more incremental way of getting out of the recession. Since the recovery has taken a better foothold, we’re seeing the multi-family side pick up again.”

Adamache – who noted that apartment starts were concentrated in the cities of Vancouver and Richmond, while Surrey led the way in less dense housing types including single-detached and townhouse starts – said multi-unit construction has been trending higher since 2010 after declining sharply from 2008 to 2009.

Source: Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun

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Vancouver to blame for Canadian homes becoming less affordable

August 22, 2011

Vancouver's housing has become unaffordable for many

Vancouver's housing has become unaffordable for many

Housing in Canada became harder to afford in the second quarter, with Vancouver’s pricey market playing a major role in the deterioration, according to a report by Royal Bank of Canada today.

It was the second straight quarter in which the bank’s quarterly Housing Trends and Affordability Index dropped. The cost of housing rose nationally across all the housing types the index tracks in the second quarter.

The index measures the proportion of pretax household income needed to service the cost of owning a home. A rise in the measure indicates a loss of affordability.

For a detached bungalow, the measure rose 1.7 percentage points to 43.3 percent. For a standard condominium, it edged up 0.8 percentage points to 29.2 percent, and for a standard two-storey home it climbed 1.8 percentage points to 49.3 percent.

Vancouver, which has long seen exceptional growth in home prices compared with other Canadian cities, directly accounted for up to one-third of the deterioration in affordability on the national score, the RBC report said.

“Vancouver’s housing market is without a doubt the most stressed in Canada and is facing the highest risk of a downturn,” said chief economist Craig Wright.

Other local housing markets were reasonably affordable or at worst, slightly unaffordable, the report showed.

[If you are looking for affordability - check out South Surrey/White Rock's latest townhouse development at Pier 16 which is priced in the mid-$300,000s for a three-bedroom home.]

Housing sector observers generally see the overall pace of housing activity, from starts to resales, slowing in the coming months, partly due to tighter mortgage regulations introduced earlier in the year and as pent-up demand gets absorbed.

Source: Reuters

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