Below is a quote from an April 2, 2008 news release from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, which describes how sales are bit down, there are a more listings, and prices continue to rise with over 10% increases this year.  Keep in mind that this news release was issued before the last 1/2% interest rate drop which will fuel real estate purchases.  If you would like more information on this, I have the news release, which has specific statistics and graphs for different areas.

 

VANCOUVER, B.C. – April 2, 2008

– The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that while

there were fewer housing sales in March 2008 compared to last year, residential prices continued to climb.  Residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 2,997 in March 2008, a decline of 16.3 per cent from the 3,582 residential sales recorded in March 2007, and a decline of 25.7 per cent compared to the 4,033 sales in March 2006. New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties increased four per cent to 5,674 in March 2008 compared with March 2007, when 5,456 new units were listed.  “The market is continuing to balance, with sales and listings beginning to re-align with our 10-year averages,” says REBGV president, Dave Watt. “The selection of inventory hitting the market is wider than we have seen in the past few years, which gives prospective buyers more choices.” Sales of detached properties declined 20.2 per cent to 1,116 from the 1,399 detached sales recorded during the same period in 2007. The benchmark price, as calculated by the MLSLink Housing Price Index®, for detached properties rose 12.1 per cent from March 2007 to $764,616. Sales of apartment properties in March 2008 declined 10.6 per cent to 1,370, compared to 1,532 sales in March 2007. The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 11.5 per cent from March 2007 to $389,609. Attached property sales in March 2008 are down 21.5 per cent to 511, compared with the 651 sales in March 2007. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 10.6 per cent between March 2007 and 2008 to $473,543. 

Here is a link that I use to regularly check the Bank of Canada's rates:  http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/003/008/099/003008-disclaimer.html?orig=/100/201/301/weekly_fin_stats/2008 .  If you follow the link to the nearest current week and go to page eight, you will see a column for the Prime Business Rate and 1 year and 5 year Conventional Mortgage Rates.  Major banks in Canada do not have to follow suit with these rates, but usually do with the Prime Rate. 

 

The Bank of Canada Prime Rate, as shown at the link above, is now 4.75% and you should be able to find some types of mortgages (open and close variable) with significant discounts from this rate, so borrowing money right now is cheap. 

 

With there being more listings, less purchases happening and low interests rates, now is a great time to buy real estate!