Blog by Patricia Houlihan
July 21st, 2010
REBGV Stats June 2010
Activity steady to start the
summer season
The Greater Vancouver housing market experienced steady activity to
begin the summer season.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that
residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 2,972 in
June 2010, a decline of 30.2 per cent compared to the 4,259 sales
in June 2009, which was the secon ...
Posted in General
July 21st, 2010
July 2010 Market Update
Welcome to the 2nd Half of the Year!
On July 1st, the HST came into effect.
To calculate how the HST will affect a
typical new house
price, please visit
www.macrealty.com to use the HST
calculator. Remember though, there are many subtleties to the HST
laws and its associated transition rules. An accountant will likely
be needed to answer these more detailed ques ...
Posted in General
July 20th, 2010
The mortgage broker in our office just sent me this so for those
of you who haven't heard the news today:
Canada's central bank issues gloomy outlook as it raises
trend-setting rate by quarter point
By Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - The Bank of Canada has hiked its trendsetting interest
rate a quarter point to 0.75 per cent, while issuing a more gloomy
outlook for the econo ...
Posted in General
July 14th, 2010
Macrealty Market Update
Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)'s effect on real estate prices in
BC:
New Construction
All new residential construction will now be
taxable at the 12% rate rather than the previous 5%. To offset some
of this, the government has introduced a New Housing Rebate which
will significantly reduce the burden of the additional tax up to a
house value of $525,000. For new constru ...
Posted in General
June 15th, 2010
June 2010 Market Update
With the HST implementation date quickly approaching, many of
you have asked what effect this new value-added tax will have on
real estate prices in BC. To answer this question, we must break
down its effects into 3 categories: New Construction, Resale, and
Fees.
New Construction
This category is the one that is likely to be most influenced by
the change from G ...
Posted in General
June 15th, 2010
Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver - News Release
May market offers buyers greater selection
VANCOUVER, B.C. - June 4, 2010 - The number of
properties listed for sale in Greater Vancouver continued to rise
in May, while the number of sales showed a year-over-year
decrease.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that
residential property sales in Greater Vancouver ...
Posted in General
May 13th, 2010
Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver - News Release
Home buyer and seller activity increases in busy spring
market
VANCOUVER, B.C. - May 4, 2010 -The Greater Vancouver housing market
experienced increased activity in April thanks to a steady balance
of home buyers and sellers entering the marketplace.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that
residential property ...
Posted in General
May 13th, 2010
May 2010 Market Update
Last week, the Royal Bank boosted its mortgage rates for the
third time in a month. The move increased RBC's posted 5-year
closed rate to 6.25% (Note: the posted rate is rarely paid. A good
mortgage broker or even your own negotiating skills will often
result in a lower rate being offered by a bank) and this has come
amid overtures that the Bank of Canada will be ...
Posted in General
May 5th, 2010
What to do when the market is doing
THIS!
Well something is definitely going on in the market-of course it is
to be expected given that the interest rates went up 3 times in
almost the same number of weeks. That coupled with prices that in
many areas are now at, or above, the previous peak AND the
unprecedented lengthy market upswing (excluding the short downswing
for 6 months in 2008) and ...
Posted in General
April 12th, 2010
I just responded to a client email on some of the issues covered in
the update (see below) earlier today. The one thing I would add to
the update is that the market is also likely to get increasingly
better for buyers for the next while BUT you might not want to wait
for the bottom. When the market went down in 2008, I tried to
encourage a couple of people who had been looking for quite a whi ...
Posted in General