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Budget news and Vancouver west side real estate


Blog by Patricia Houlihan - Personal Real Estate Corporation | February 22nd, 2007


The government has said housing is its focus in this budget.....and there may be some good news for SOME first time home buyers. Unfortunately, the changes that seem most significant will not be that useful to those who want to buy a home in the west side. The BC government has raised the exemption for the First Time Home Buyers Program threshold to $375,000 with proportional exemption up to $400,000.  This will help some people in outlying areas but won't do much for anyone wanting to buy a house anywhere near Vancouver-as it really isn't possible to buy a house for this amount of money.  So condo buyers and those outside Vancouver will be okay....its too bad though that the assistance wasn't a bit broader.  We have a lot of clients just scraping by trying to buy condos in the west side, and very very few first time home owners can afford to buy a house in the west side......I think most first time home buyers buying in the west side could have used this help too. 

If you would like more information about the First Time Home Buyers Program or the other costs and benefits associated with home buying, please contact us.  And for more information regarding the recent announcements by the provincial government, go to: http://www.rev.gov.bc.ca/rpt/ptt/ptt.htm