How quickly things can change.

Only a few short months ago, the buyers had a great upper hand with the sellers. Lot's of inventory, good prices, and lot's of time to make a decision.

But, things changed. With good mortgage rates and good choices, smart buyers picked off deals and reduced the inventory. Seller feeling being taken advantage of, decided to wait and hold of listing their properties, creating a shrinking inventory.

As a result the time to sell a condo or a home has been greatly reduced. As an example, Vancouver West condo inventories , in a February report, took 12.4 months to move. This means that an average listing would take a year to sell.

This month, as you can see from the attached chart, the time on the market has been reduced to 4.19 months. According to the Real Estate Pulse, the Vancouver West market has moved into the Sellers market in 4 short months.

Quite a change from the last report in December 2008. This means that as a Buyer, you have to be on your toes and be the first to know about HOT new listings, because the competition is strong.

As we are still in an uncertain market, the prices may not move up in a near future, but it will effect the most popular price ranges in a first time buyer categories. Eventually as the markets and economic conditions improve and the levels of inventory stay low, we will see the price upward movement.

When will that be? No one really knows, but if you are thinking of buying, keep your eyes on the market.

  If you are looking to Buy or to Sell real estate in Vancouver area, give me a call. My consultations are FREE. The benefits to You, may be worth a lot of money.
Call Jeff Stark at 604-506-8481 or email me at jeff@jeffreystark.net

Buyers are on the move. If you are one of them, make sure you are approved, because mortgage rates are on the move also. 

A continued increase in buyer activity over the last four months has resulted in increased home sales and lessened the downward pressure on housing prices in Greater Vancouver.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that the number of residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 3,524 in May 2009, an increase of 17.4 per cent from the 3,002 sales recorded in May 2008, and an increase of 18.9 per cent compared to last month.

Since the beginning of the year, the MLSLink® Housing Price Index (HPI) benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver has increased 4.5 per cent to $506,201 from $484,211. However, home prices compared to May 2008 levels are down 10.9 per cent.

"The increased level of buyer activity over the last few months has had a stabilizing effect on home prices across our region," Scott Russell, REBGV president said. "MLS® data continues to show a trend toward a balanced market in the region."

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties declined in Greater Vancouver, down 36 per cent to 4,733 in May 2009 compared to May 2008, when 7,390 new units were listed. At 13,641, the total number of property listings on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) declined 4.7 per cent compared to last month and 16 per cent compared to May 2008.

Sales of detached properties increased 16.5 per cent to 1,402 from the 1,203 detached sales recorded during the same period in 2008. The HPI benchmark price for detached properties declined 11.8 per cent from May 2008 to $680,320.

Sales of apartment properties in May 2009 increased 17.2 per cent to 1,458, compared to 1,244 sales in May 2008. The benchmark price of an apartment property declined 10.2 per cent from May 2008 to $349,987.

Attached property sales in May 2009 are up 19.6 per cent to 664, compared with the 555 sales in May 2008. The benchmark price of an attached unit decreased 9 per cent between May 2008 and 2009 to $435,848.

Bright spots in Greater Vancouver in May 2009 compared to May 2008:

Detached:

Burnaby up 48.9 per cent (140 units sold from 94)

Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows up 13.4 per cent (144 units sold from 127)

North Vancouver up 31.4 per cent (134 units sold from 102)

Port Moody/Belcarra up 52.6 per cent (29 units sold from 19)

Richmond up 14.0 per cent (170 units sold from 142)

Vancouver East up 11.1 per cent (180 units sold from 162)

Vancouver West up 59.5 per cent (193 units sold from 121)

Attached:

Burnaby up 31.5 per cent (96 units sold from 73)

Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows up 43.8 per cent (46 units sold from 32)

North Vancouver up 31.8 per cent (58 units sold from 44)

Vancouver West up 54.5 per cent (102 units sold from 66)

Apartments:

Burnaby up 32.6 per cent (187 units sold from 141)

North Vancouver up 22.6 per cent (103 units sold from 84)

Richmond up 27.4 per cent (200 units sold from 157)

Vancouver East up 28.7 per cent (139 units sold from 108)

Vancouver West up 25.4 per cent (529 units sold from 422)

As per a release from the Real Estate Board ov Greater Vancouver

For more information please contact:
Craig Munn, Assistant Manager of Communications
Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver

If you are looking to Buy or to Sell real estate in Vancouver area, give me a call. My consultations are FREE. The benefits to You, may be worth a lot of money.
Call Jeff Stark at 604-506-8481 or email me at jeff@jeffreystark.net

This may not be as a sophisticated answer as you may expect, but from talking to my mortgage broker connections, this is how I see it.

There are two different institution dealing with interest rates etc. There is a Bank of Canada who controls the "Bank Rate", the overnight rate, and then there is the Government of Canada who controls the interest rates.

Well, there are also the banks and lending institutions that use these guidelines and set their own mortgage lending rates as they see fit.

The Bank of Canada has set dates for announcing their bank rate and they are designed to keepinflationin check and control the economic trends.

Government of Canada on the other hand has to raise money for it's operations and the most common is to sell government bonds. These are guaranteed investments and in tough times are a pretty solid investment, and favored by more cautious investors. Bonds earn you money trough yields, in other words interest.
Investors move their money around always looking for the best return on their investment.

When the stock market starts moving, investors tend to gravitate to stocks and sell their bonds, or don't buy them anymore. What is the government going to do? They need their money to run their business and in order to get the investors back, they increase the yields.

Since the mortgage rates have close ties to thebond markets, with the spread, the difference between the yield and interest rates of up to 2% the longer term mortgage rates will rise accordingly.

This may be a simplified explanation of where we are going, but everything points to up!

If you are a buyer and thinking of purchasing in the next few months, get yourself appoved and watch the market. Nobody has a crystal ball, but this kind of propection does not cost you anything.

If you are looking to Buy or to Sell real estate in Vancouver area, give me a call. My consultations are FREE. The benefits to You, may be worth a lot of money.
Call Jeff Stark at 604-506-8481 or email me at jeff@jeffreystark.net or visit my web site at www.jeffreystark.net

Best Places to Live: Where does your city rank?

Phil Froats and Rob Gerlsbeck
MoneySense /Canadian Business May 2009

Thesepages are a great source of all kinds of interesting facts and figures on many cities and locations in Canada.

Some of thge results may surprise you. Where do you think you can have most fun? Cheapest place to live?

Check it out here

Dear Condo Smarts: We have been viewing a number of condos in the past few weeks to purchase as our new home.

In the process of reading minutes we have found a number of conditions in each of the condos where the strata corporation could not provide us with satisfactory answers, so we did not pursue the sale.

We were faced with the refusal of the property manger and the strata corporation to disclose information on two issues.

The first was insurance claims and what parts of the building were damaged and restored in a major insurance claim, and the second was warranty claims.

Is this a normal practice and doesn't the strata have to disclose this information when someone requests it?

Dear MC: A prudent buyer will investigate building history, financial operations, financial reserves, maintenance schedules, the minutes of the meetings, and warranty and insurance claims that might affect your purchase.

As part of the records and documents in the Strata Act, the strata must retain correspondence sent and received by the strata corporation which could be warranty or insurance information, but that is only for a period of two years.

 They must also retain warranty documents and records, but if they do not include warranty or insurance claims and reports as part of the minutes of council meetings, there may not be a record of any such claims, other than the correspondence.

Unless you as the consumer specifically request copies of claims history for warranties and insurance claims, you would have no way of knowing that information.

If there was a related claim on the strata lot you are interested in, the vendor would also have a duty to disclose that information, but the conditions and claims of common property would have to be disclosed by the strata corporation, if requested.

Buyers should exercise caution when purchasing a unit if the strata or owner is unwilling to disclose warranty or insurance information.

If there is a history of insurance claims, you may be able to identify this through the deductible amounts shown on the strata insurance policy, but they only relate to history, not the current or future risk of the property.

For example, if the insurance deductible for water escape is $2,500, it is a good indication that there have been few if any water damage claims by the strata or owners, but if the deductible is $10,000, $25,000, or higher, it is obvious that a series of claims have resulted in a greater risk for the insurer and costs for the strata corporation.

Buying a condo today is also about protecting your future investment. Don't take anyone's word for anything. Review all the documentation available and confirm your requests in writing for additional information.

As published in Vancouver province may 17th, 2009, and written by Tony Gioventu

Tony Gioventu is executive director of the Condominium Home Owners' Association. E-mail: tony@choa.bc.ca.