Tags: forecast

16 Jun 2009, Comments Off

Vancouver real estate prices will drop less than expected

Author: admin

Reviewed and recommended by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO

A recent surge in real estate sales has caused the Canadian Real Estate Association to sharply revise its expectations for price drops in British Columbia.
CREA, in its forecast released on Thursday, estimated that B.C.’s average house price will drop less than seven per cent over 2009, more than 3 percentage points less than the 10.6 per cent drop forecast in February.
CREA’s forecast that B.C.’s average price will drop to $423,300, instead of the $406,300 average it forecast earlier.
Going forward to 2010, CREA is now predicting that B.C. prices will start edging up again by almost two per cent compared with a 2010 drop of 0.6 per cent forecasted in February.
B.C. sales rose in April from the previous month, the B.C. Real Estate Association said Thursday in a news release, as buyers were drawn back into the market by lower prices and rock-bottom mortgage rates. And the inventory of unsold homes across the province dropped to the lowest level in 12 months, the association said, edging the ratio of sales to active listings close to the zone housing economists consider balanced between buyers and sellers.
“An increase in consumer demand combined with fewer homes for sale has trended the market near balanced conditions,” Cameron Muir, chief economist for the B.C. Real Estate Association said in an interview.
April was the third straight month that sales were higher than the previous month.

Peter Raab

http://www.peterraab.ca/vancouver-real-estate-market-updates/2009/05/vancouver-real-estate-prices-will-drop.html

16 Jun 2009, Comments Off

Vancouver BC Canada Housing Market and Real Estate – Still Viable

Author: admin

There are four main reasons for this assessment.

The first of these is that British Columbia is enjoying period of unprecedented growth and prosperity. This period of economic prosperity forms the bedrock upon which the Vancouver housing market can consolidate its position.

In the February 20,2007 Budget and Fiscal Plan for 2007/08-2009/10 which was released by the Ministry of Finance , the outlook for the BC economy in general and the Real Estate Market in particular, is exceptionally bright.

The second item to consider is the influx of immigration that is expected to flood into British Columbia the years leading up to the BC Olympic Games. The Council projected that total net migration to British Columbia would continue to rise to unprecedented levels. In 2007 alone, projections averaged from a low of 35,423 people to a high of 55,000 people. The general expectation is that this trend will continue in to increase in the coming years with the anticipation that total net migration to average about 47,000 people in 2008, rising to over 50,000 through the 2009 to 2011 period.

The third area of consideration is the inflation of the Canadian Dollar and its effects on interest rates and the Real Estate Market. The expectation is that Bank of Canada will raise interest rates an average of 4.08 per cent in 2007. Over the long term the rates should hold fairly steady or even come down slightly. The Council’s forecasts for the Bank of Canada’s overnight target rate averaged 4.13 per cent in 2008, falling to 4.01 per cent over the 2009 to 2011 period.

The last piece of information needed to navigate in the complex Real Estate Market, is the forecast for Real Estate Market movement in British Columbia and its implications for you as a home-buyer. The news is good, according to the bi-annual press release published by The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA). In the Housing Forecast Report, Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist gives us this insight, The market has shifted away from strong sellers conditions and is expected to operate in a band between a strong balanced and weak sellers market over the forecast horizon.

http://cheap-airlines-tickets28175.blogspot.com/2009/05/vancouver-bc-canada-housing-market-and.html

Reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO

15 Jun 2009, Comments Off

Housing starts rebound to top forecast in May

Author: admin

Canada’s housing construction sector had a better-than-expected May as the seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of starts rose to 128,400 for the month.
Moishe Alexander reviews the trends:

That was ahead of the 126,000 annualized rate that economists had forecast.

In April, the seasonally adjusted annualized rate was 117,600.

“This morning’s housing starts data for May from CMHC provided us with the first sign that a bottom might be forming in Canadian homebuilding activity,” said TD Bank economist Pascal Gauthier.

“Nation-wide homebuilding activity recorded its first broadly based increase since October 2008, both in terms of unit types (singles and multiples) and regions of the country,” he said.

The federal government agency said urban single-home starts increased by 11.1 per cent to 46,900 units last month, while urban multiple-units starts, such as condominiums, rose by a similar percentage to 60,900.

May’s seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased 22.0 per cent in Ontario, 16.8 per cent in the Prairies, 7.3 per cent in Atlantic Canada, and 3.3 per cent in Quebec. Urban starts declined 5.0 per cent in British Columbia.

Showing how much housing has retreated since last year, the overall seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of construction starts stood at 221,300 units in May 2008.

CMHC said housing starts are expected to improve throughout 2009 and over the next several years “to gradually become more closely aligned to demographic demand, which is currently estimated at about 175,000 units per year.”

Gauthier said starts are expected to remain around 120,000 on average through the remainder of this year.

“The good news part [in that forecast] is that homebuilding activity would cease to be a drag on economic growth and employment heading into next year,” he said.

“The bad news part, assuming our forecast unfolds, is that we do not expect the level of starts to head back above 150,000 units before 2011.” Posted by Thaddeus Warchol

Tags

AIR Alexander Building Canada Canadian Funding Corp. Canadian Funding Corporation CFC cmhc construction Design IDP integrated design Moishe Alexander performance report Reviews Window Window Installation
  •