There are signs of life in the spring market. Finally! After many months (years?) of disappointment and fear, things appear to be looking more positive for the real estate market in the Greater Vancouver area. MCAP reports: “there was a bit of positive news on the state of Canada’s two largest residential real estate markets”. They went on to report “…the Vancouver real estate board released activity data for March last week and, although the comparisons to last year continue to appear weak in terms of sales volumes, there were signs of stability in the Vancouver market”.
“In March 2013, we saw a continuous decline in housing prices in the City of Vancouver.While we can see that sales are still down, there are potentially brighter prospects for the coming months, since lower prices of properties and a wider selection of new listings to choose from might activate further market activity.” say Sebastian Albrecht of YourVancouverRealEstate.ca.
Real estate activity in March was up 50% over that of February. This is great news! The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver president observed that “we are seeing more balance between the number of sales and listings on the market in the last two months, which is having a stabilizing impact on home prices”. Another factor is that the sales tax regime in B.C. changed as of April 1st and this will hopefully further boost activity. New homes are now subject to GST of 5% and a Transition tax of 2%, rather than to a flat 12% sales tax. Signs of Life for Spring are everywhere now. The rain is lessening, the buds are opening and the grass is being cut here and there. These signs of life in the spring market are an equally welcomed sight. If you have any questions or need to start the process of finding just the right home in this current market by qualifying for a mortgage, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We would be honoured to assist you!
