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The Metro Vancouver real estate sales numbers continue to slow. For this past June the sales numbers are 35% below last year and 23.3% below the 10-year average. The main reason for the drop in sales is the higher interest rate. Inventory has stayed relatively tight. There were 5,256 new listings which is a 10.1% decrease compared to June 2021 and a 17.6% decrease from May 2022. The total number of listings is 3.8% lower than June of 2021 but a 4.1% increase compared to May 2022. As you can see from the table below, the sales-to-active listings ratio continues to decrease which translates to decreasing property prices. The typical explanation is the downward pressure on home prices occurs when the ratio dips below 12%

The Metro Vancouver real estate sales numbers are in and it is confirming a slowing market. May’s sales were 12.9% below the 10-year May sales average. The lower sales quickly lowered the sales-to-active listings ratios. While generally the narrative is that when the ratio dips below 12% for a sustained period, there will be downward pricing pressures, we are seeing price drops immediately before the 12% is reached. For example, the sales-to-active listings for detached and townhomes are 18.3% and 35.5% respectively, and the benchmark price for detached homes and townhomes have dropped 0.4% and 0.6% respectively over the past month. The sales-to-active listings ratio for apartments is 38.1% and it maintained a 0.4% increase month over month. This result is not surprising since sales

The Federal Government has announced a new vehicle to help first time home buyers that combines the best features of a RRSP and a TFSA. They call it the tax-free first home savings account (FHSA) and the money you put into this account will be tax deductible like an RRSP. The beauty is that when you take the money out for the purpose of buying a house, that money is NOT taxed! The only other vehicle that allows tax-sheltered growth without taxation at the end is a permanent life insurance policy but you have to die to benefit from it. Well, most of the benefit goes to the heirs, so this is better. There is a maximum $8000 per year contribution room which does not

This April the sales number has slowed down but it is still good. It is 1.5% above the 10-year April sales average. The inventory has dropped by 14.1% compared to 2021 but has increased 15.3% when compared to March. This is reflected in the significantly lower sales-to-active listings ratios and the lower month-over-month benchmark price increases. Extended periods where the ratio is above 20% will have upward pricing pressure. The sales-to-active listings for April for the detached homes, townhomes and apartments are respectively, 25.3%, 47.1% and 45.0%. The lower ratios correlate with the smaller price increase which has dropped to about 1%. There will be headwinds for the real estate market this year as rate increases are happening faster than expected. The Bank of Canada and

The Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) issued a report late March based on recently released Census data. The title of the first half of the report could have been called “Rising House Prices? It is Not Our Fault!”.  While there is a strong focus on spreading the blame, I agree with a lot of the points and conclusions. One surprising fact from the report is that the supply of housing HAS been keeping up with population growth. So laying most of the blame on the slow approval process at the municipal government level may be unfair; though, anecdotally there are many horror stories. I am sure there is some streamlining that can be done which the report acknowledges. A BMO senior economist also looked at

One of the biggest tax-free investment you can get in Canada is your own home. The principal residence exemption (PRE) allows you to shelter your capital gains from the sale of your home from tax. Without this exemption, 50% of it will be taxable. And as you will see below, sometimes 100% of it can be taxable! Because of tax law changes, everyone now has to report the sale of their real properties regardless of whether it is your principal residence or not. It should be filed in the tax year that it was sold. That is, if you sold it in 2021, then it should be reported on your 2021 tax return. If you forget, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will accept a late designation

Last March was the highest selling month in history, so comparison against it will be deceiving. The sales number for this March is 23.9% lower than last March, but are actually 25.5% above the 10-year March average. So this is still a very strong market. If you look at the chart below, you can see several obvious trends. Sales-to-active listings ratio is a measure of supply and demand. A ratio of 50% would mean that in a given month, 50% of the active listings are sold. Ratios that are over 20% on a continual basis point towards increased pricing pressure. From the table below you can see that demand has not let up. In fact, it has increased from last month. This translated to strong

Seems like the world has gone mad. And Vancouver is part of it. If you find real estate in the real world too expensive, you can now buy real estate in the Metaverse through a company in Vancouver. TerraZero has provided one of the first metaverse mortgages to a client financing their virtual real estate purchase within the Metaverse.The property is in Etherium-based Metaverse platform Decentraland. You can’t drive by to take a look because it is virtual real estate. However, once you buy this property, you can “build” on it. Do you need to hire contractors for the foundation or get the “city” to hook up the water and electricity? I don’t know. Also what is not known is the identity of the buyer

The madness continues. And one might argue that it is getting worse. Inventory continues to be extremely low. The total number of homes currently listed for sale in Metro Vancouver is 6,742. That is a 19.3% decrease from February of last year.But last February’s inventory was already 21.2% below the 10-year February average. At the same time, sales are 26.9% above the 10-year February average. This combination has pushed the sales-to-listings ratios for various property types up by more than 10% from last month and this has resulted in a jump in prices. For detached homes the ratio is 34.9% and this corresponds to a monthly increase to the benchmark price of 4.7%, a total increase of 25% in the last 12 months. For apartments