From the category archives:
In this video blog, Vancouver realtor Sebastian Albrecht provides some advice to potential first time buyers of Vancouver real estate. No matter where you live, you are paying someone’s mortgage. Rather than pay your landlord’s, why not put money in your own pocket? It’s advice Sebastian took when he bought his first Vancouver condo.
Please share [...]
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Balanced markets emerging
If you’ve been reading this blog lately, or just watching the For Sale signs on your street, you know that the Vancouver real estate market has come back to life. In a number of recent posts, I’ve pointed out that this resurgence began with the reappearance of the first-time home buyer into the [...]
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Where we are coming from
Right now we are seeing a resurgence in the Vancouver real estate market. Beginning in the early spring of 2008, the market began to cool off considerably. By the time that fall 2008 arrived the market had stalled. The number of listings in the city of Vancouver had ballooned while sales [...]
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When thinking about buying your first home, you need to consider whether or not it is the right decision for you. There are enormous differences between renting your home and owning it. One path isn’t necessarily better than the other, it just has to be the right decision for you.
Before committing to such a significant [...]
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Background
Recently, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board commissioned the Mustel Group to carry out a study of residential home buyers and sellers in 2008. This survey included 705 respondents from the REBGV and 395 from the FVREB.
This is a fantastic survey that looks at the real estate [...]
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When a property changes hands in British Columbia the provincial government levies a tax (the Property Transfer Tax). All buyers of real estate in Vancouver must pay the Property Transfer Tax when they make their purchase. However, there is an exception to this tax and that is for the first-time home buyer.
To qualify for the [...]
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As I talked about in my post yesterday, first time buyers are returning to the Vancouver real estate market in significant numbers. Well-priced, good quality homes are selling fast and even the odd multiple offer is occurring.
There is another article about the first-time buyer phenomenon in today’s Globe and Mail.
We often see first-time buyers driving [...]
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In the Vancouver real estate statistics that I publish on this blog on a regular basis, I’ve been mentioning that the market has strengthened. On these pages, I’ve pointed out that a lot of the renewed activity in our market appears to be coming from first-time homebuyers.
Anecdotally, I am receiving calls and gaining clients that [...]
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On February 19th, Carole Taylor announced the 2008 Provincial budget. Much has been made of the “green” budget. Somewhat lost in the green glare has been the fact that the Provincial government increased the threshold for First-Time Buyer’s to qualify for exemption from the Property Transfer Tax.
If you qualify under the program, you can now [...]
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I find that there is a lot of confusion out there about what the Property Transfer Tax (PTT) is and who has to pay for it. With that in mind, I thought that I would try and clarify a few things.
The PTT is a tax imposed by the Provincial government on all transactions of property. [...]
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