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Straight from the mouths of the head cheerleader [BC Real Estate Association] . Must be official now, eh...
News from The Globe and Mail
B.C. HOUSING HEADS DOWNHILL :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
Boom times are over for the province following explosive growth in demand, prices
DAVID EBNER AND LORI MCLEOD
00:00 EDT Thursday, October 30, 2008
VANCOUVER and TORONTO -- Canada's most expensive housing market is hitting a significant slump, with home sales numbers falling and prices declining, the British Columbia Real Estate Association said yesterday.
"The bull market in housing is over in British Columbia, and it's been over for several months," said Cameron Muir, the group's chief economist.
The association, in a forecast published yesterday, said prices could average $453,000 in B.C. this year. But for 2009, prices are predicted to slump 9 per cent to an average of $413,000 - with much of the decline taking place before the end of this year.
The market peaked in the spring, the forecast said. Over the summer, cracks began to show. Consumer confidence wavered. People would go to open houses but wouldn't buy. Sales fell almost 50 per cent in July, compared with a year earlier, and fell more than 50 per cent in August. Prices weakened. And then the credit crisis hit - and B.C. and Vancouver prices kept falling...
...In Vancouver, it was similar to the frothiest moments in Toronto's real estate boom this decade, when bidding wars would see homes sold for tens of thousands of dollars more than the asking price.
No longer: The B.C. Real Estate Association predicted sales will be down about 30 per cent this year in Vancouver and around B.C.
Mr. Boenisch's experience is even more severe, saying sales are already down as much as 50 per cent.
"When you have 80 per cent more inventory with half the amount of buyers, this is a dramatically different market," Mr. Boenisch said...
B.C. HOUSING HEADS DOWNHILL :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
Boom times are over for the province following explosive growth in demand, prices
DAVID EBNER AND LORI MCLEOD
00:00 EDT Thursday, October 30, 2008
VANCOUVER and TORONTO -- Canada's most expensive housing market is hitting a significant slump, with home sales numbers falling and prices declining, the British Columbia Real Estate Association said yesterday.
"The bull market in housing is over in British Columbia, and it's been over for several months," said Cameron Muir, the group's chief economist.
The association, in a forecast published yesterday, said prices could average $453,000 in B.C. this year. But for 2009, prices are predicted to slump 9 per cent to an average of $413,000 - with much of the decline taking place before the end of this year.
The market peaked in the spring, the forecast said. Over the summer, cracks began to show. Consumer confidence wavered. People would go to open houses but wouldn't buy. Sales fell almost 50 per cent in July, compared with a year earlier, and fell more than 50 per cent in August. Prices weakened. And then the credit crisis hit - and B.C. and Vancouver prices kept falling...
...In Vancouver, it was similar to the frothiest moments in Toronto's real estate boom this decade, when bidding wars would see homes sold for tens of thousands of dollars more than the asking price.
No longer: The B.C. Real Estate Association predicted sales will be down about 30 per cent this year in Vancouver and around B.C.
Mr. Boenisch's experience is even more severe, saying sales are already down as much as 50 per cent.
"When you have 80 per cent more inventory with half the amount of buyers, this is a dramatically different market," Mr. Boenisch said...
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