Resources fuelling B.C. economy and housing demand – Greater Vancouver Real Estate News April 2012
The resources sector is not only fuelling British Columbia’s economy but also its housing market.
Tagged: Economy
Forecast For The Canadian Property Industry In 2011
Balance and stability, two words that recently seemed foreign and unlikely, at least in reference to the Canadian Housing Industry.
There are two million reasons for high prices in Vancouver
What drives Vancouver’s house prices so relentlessly to levels four times higher than Winnipeg’s, and more than half again what Torontonians pay?
It’s simple, says Tsur Somerville of UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate.
“If you want Winnipeg-level house prices here, all you have to do is tear down the mountains and fill in the ocean.â€
Canada’s economic recovery ‘by no means a sure thing,’ expert says
Canada avoided the brutal financial meltdown that plagued the U.S. economy, but there are some red flags that make recovery for this country “by no means a sure thing,†says a leading U.S. economist.
Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner, New York Times columnist and renowned economic pundit, described Canada as “a very calm, very happy story†during the world economic crisis.
Canada escaped relatively unscathed, through a combination of good luck and sound, conservative regulation of banking and consumer debt in which “it is not so easy to use your house as an ATM,†Krugman told the Canadian Bar Association.
Global Real Estate Trends
Global real estate markets entered 2010 with a renewed sense of optimism, piggybacking on the broader economic recovery underway. Housing demand and pricing improved in the first quarter of the year in the majority of the advanced nations we track, benefitting from ultra-low interest rates, improved affordability, and in some cases, government purchase incentives
HST reaction so positive B.C. cancels mail campaign, minister says
The B.C. government has cancelled a proposed mail campaign to support its Harmonized Sales Tax because it says public reaction to the new tax has been better than expected.
Finance Minister Colin Hansen said he pulled the plug on the HST mailer Wednesday during a Liberal caucus meeting in Vancouver.
“I think the roll out of the HST has been smoother than we had anticipated,” said Hansen.
New rules, rate hike cool housing market
Existing-home sales fell 9.5% in May from the previous month as Canada’s housing market began to wind down from near-record activity as new mortgage rules had their first full month in effect.
Sales totalled 37,576 on a seasonally adjusted basis, down from 41,502 in April, largely because of a decline in purchases in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa, the Canadian Real Estate Association said yesterday. The all-time high is 45,266 in February 2007.
Investors keen on Vancouver’s commercial property
Vancouver’s commercial real-estate sector is considered a great bet for investment, according to a survey released Tuesday by Colliers International.