Blogs

In a continuing trend, British Columbia is still the least affordable region in Canada to live, led by Vancouver and Victoria. Vancouver is also the second least affordable city among major international housing markets, trailing only Hong Kong.

We saw last month (March 2017) continue with a very familiar local real estate trend of high demand with low inventory, forcing prices to increase as buyers battle for the limited number of homes that are on the market.

A new international survey shows that Vancouver continues to be the least affordable city to buy a home in Canada – and ranks third internationally. But would you believe that Victoria comes in at second on the list in Canada, less affordable than all of the other major markets considered in the study?

Over the past few weeks, we've heard some pretty scary terms being tossed about regarding the housing market: Canada is in a housing boom – bubble – bust; the market is softening, deflating, freefalling, crashing. The truth is that the federal government's new mortgage qualifying regulations introduced a lot of uncertainty into the market. Many folks are calling us with one question on their minds, "Should I buy now or wait?"

The BC housing market had a red-hot April.

British Columbia had its strongest April in more than a decade, according to the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA).

Despite concerns about Alberta’s economic woes spilling over the border, BC’s province-wide sales in April were up to 9,952 transactions, a 28.7 percent increase from the year-ago period.

Low borrowing rates and high demand continues to fuel BC's housing market.

According to the latest report from the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA), residential sales increased more than 25 percent in June, making it the second strongest June on record.

The possibility of exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) has fueled excitement in three resource-dependent communities in northwestern British Columbia, sending prices for single-family detached homes soaring.

With assessed values for detached houses having more than doubled in Kitimat over a three-year period, this increase arose during the expansion of Rio Tinto Alcan’s aluminum smelter and speculation about LNG projects.