From the category archives:
The Background
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the current Vancouver real estate market is the ideal market for trade up real estate buyers. I’ve received some inquiries from you readers asking me to explain exactly what I mean. Of course, as a Vancouver realtor I’m happy to oblige answering any and all of your [...]
{ 0 comments }
Who SHOULD Buy in Today’s Vancouver Real Estate Market?
The answer to that question really depends upon your circumstances. I believe that there are four types of people that could greatly benefit from buying in today’s Vancouver real estate market. These are:
1. You want to trade up in the market.
A down market is the classic trade-up [...]
{ 0 comments }
I wrote last week about how we are seeing the credit crunch (originating in the US but now expanding globally) affect us here on the local level in the Vancouver real estate market. There have been further developments in the last week on this issue.
First of all, I commented last time that the Bank of [...]
{ 0 comments }
Last week the Bank of Canada lowered it’s overnight lending rate by -0.5%. Typically, Canadian financial institutions follow suit by matching the change in their prime lending rate. Instead, the Canadian banks lowered their prime lending rates by only 0.25%. The banks have essentially padded their own profits as a result. They are charging customers [...]
{ 0 comments }
Being in the real estate industry, I am always scouring the internet for new sources of information. Honestly, there appear to be endless sources of information out there. Whether it is the traditional press, or new media bloggers, the sources are endless both locally and internationally. Recently, I came across a ranking of the “Top [...]
{ 0 comments }
I’m a bit late in referring to this, but I thought that it was better late than never. Last week, the Federal government announced that they were putting a halt to guaranteeing the 40-year and zero-down mortgages. They hope to avoid the type of housing crisis that we’ve seen in the US that’s been caused [...]
{ 1 comment }
It appears as though the city of Vancouver is a victim of it’s own success. In the late 80s, the city began promoting a policy of “Living First” to encourage people to move downtown. In that time, we’ve gone from a Downtown population of 40,000 to more than 90,000 with the incredible growth and popularity [...]
{ 0 comments }
On Tuesday, June 10th 2008 the Bank of Canada announced it’s decision to leave its target for the overnight lending rate at 3% and the bank lending rate at 3.25%. The Bank surprised most observers by leaving rates unchanged and cited concerns about rising inflation for this change in it’s policy (find the full press [...]
{ 0 comments }
Ozzie Jurock (local real estate investment educator) recently wrote a piece featured in the Vancouver Sun (”Why I will always buy real estate“). It’s an interesting read, and worth considering in light of our “rebalancing” market.
You can read the article for yourself right here, but here are a couple of expercpts for you:
If you place a good portion [...]
{ 0 comments }
The CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) released it’s Spring 2008 forecast for the Metro Vancouver region today. It’s a relatively positive forecast, predicting that the market will “moderate slightly” in 2008 and 2009.
It points to strong economic and demographic fundamentals underpinning the market, including steady job growth, population growth and continued low mortgage rates. Meanwhile, [...]
{ 0 comments }
Twitter