The Olympic period increased home sales activity in Vancouver

Published on 03-09-2010 Comments(0) Full article

According to a news release sent on March 2nd by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, The Greater Vancouver housing market continued to experience strong demand from homebuyers and an increase in total property listings in a month where the eyes of the world were focused on the region.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 2,473 in February 2010, an increase of 67.1 per cent compared to February 2009 when 1,480 sales were recorded and a 28.6 per cent increase compared to the 1,923 sales recorded in January 2010.

Over the last 12 months, the MLSLink® Housing Price Index (HPI) benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver increased 19.7 per cent to $581,911 from $486,054 in February 2009. This price is 2.4 per cent above the previous high point in the market in May 2008 when the residential benchmark price sat at $568,411.

"We don't know at this point what long-term impact the Olympics will have on our housing market, but we do know that activity in our market remained steady through all of the excitement and distraction of the last few weeks," Scott Russell, REBGV president said.

"In February, for example, 110 sales were recorded on the MLS® in downtown Vancouver. That's higher than 2009 and slightly lower than the mid-2000s, which is consistent with data from the overall market. It's too soon to say whether that's an Olympic effect," Russell said.

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MLS under fire, what do you think?

Published on 02-10-2010 Comments(1) Full article

Time for an Open Source MLS?

CREA is under fire by the Canadian Competition Bureau, it looks like the MLS might be forced to open up a little.

Judge overturns 38-per-cent rent hike for West End tenants

Published on 01-13-2010 Comments(0) Full article

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Linda Loo ordered Gordon Nelson Investments, which owns the Seafield building at 1436 Pendrell Street, to return the additional rent collected since April of last year.

She found the increase "patently unreasonable" and she has overtuned rent increases of up to 38 per cent for tenants.

The Seafield is a 14-unit heritage building, located four blocks from English Bay, where many of the tenants have lived for more than 30 years.

The landlord took ownership of the building on July 31, 2008. Six months later, the owner applied to increase the rent for 13 units by up to 73.3 per cent. The tenants opposed the rent increases because they said the statutory criteria for permitting additional rent increases above four per cent a year were not met.

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Predictions for 2010

Published on 12-22-2009 Comments(4) Full article

Flickr photo by Tim in Sydney.This morning in my inbox I found this opinion piece from Inman News: Real estate wish list, predictions for 2010Reading through the predictions, I was struck by how many real estate professionals avoid commenting on social media and marketing changes in the...

Whistler Road Permits Issued For Olympics

Published on 12-15-2009 Comments(0) Full article

Whistler Permits.