And yet, a CIBC study published a week or two ago by economist Benjamin Tal asserts that mortgage debt levels in BC vs total home equity are no higher than in Toronto …. so once again, the 'official' explanations do not wash …. something else is going on here ….

I've studied the BC real estate market for years, both as a resident and (now) as a non-resident. All I can say is that every official explanation i've seen for Vancouver's sky-high prices makes no sense, and does not hold up under scrutiny. Clearly there is something going on here that the vancouver real estate industry and the banks are unwilling to discuss publicly. The illegal drug trade obviously generates a huge whack of cash that is laundered in part thru local real estate. But I'm starting to think wealthy foreign buyers — acting through local agents or representatives who have local addresses and thus qualify as "BC residents" per Landcor's data — are in fact a big part of the story too. Such buyers can buy multiple properties, and if the source of funds is derived from some illegal… Read more »

@chip:

Although I agree Canada is a joke as far as immigration and drug laws, its silly to attribute the run up in real estate foreign money. Consider that corrupt Hong Kong cop.. he embezzled his money in the mid 1970s! Look at those prices on those homes listed in that article.. 400k for a west side home!

Its regular folks that have bought into the hype, that have over-leveraged, that are greater fool landlords, these are the people that are the largest pool of buyers.

@patriotz: Hi Patriotz You seem to always come out of nowhere when this issue comes up. Are you someone in the industry, someone like Michael Levy by any chance? Whoever you really are, you seem to be very sensitive to anyone suggesting that Asians have ANY effect here. Now you want to seem to be superior in knowledge to the vast majority of Australians (78% in a recent poll) that already know that Asians that are NOT residents and have no right to own an existing home in OZ are a major reason why locals can't afford a home. Rudd is to be commended for his new clamp down on Asians from abroad buying everything in sight. The truth is the truth and political correctness is the shield the real estate industry hides behind when some CANADIAN RESIDENT (any nationality… Read more »

I travel to Hong Kong a fair bit and whenever there is a corruption case in the news I almost reflexively look for a Vancouver real estate angle. These are some I remember from the last few years: 1) corrupt cop: "A covert police study obtained by The Asian Pacific Post shows that Hon and his family had bought at least 11 residential and commercial properties and established a dozen companies in Vancouver, including a restaurant on Robson Street." http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/c1ee8c441… 2) corrupt banker: "Gao Shan has been alleged by China for embezzling $150m from a Bank of China's small branch in Heilongjiang, where he was the branch manager. Apart from Gao, China believes his accomplice Li Dongzhe (李東哲) also lives in Vancouver. A national arrest warrant was issued against Gao in 2005. However, there was no "Red Notice" issued by… Read more »

@stupid flys:

So what you are saying, in a nutshell, is our federal government, with provincial and municipal governments in tow, sold us down the river?

As for the Italian / Chinese mix thingy, can I come over for dinner sometimes? I'll bring the beer.

I'm glad the foreign rich asian buyer has come up for discussion. For years we've been told how little Vancouverites earn vs other parts of Canada and the world. What is the median individual full-time income – something like 40k? Ok, so then who IS bidding all these average Van bungalows up to 800k+

Let's assume it isn't average people with average incomes. The booming organized crime money laundering gangs and the rich asians theories appear no more far fetched than ordinary Joes magically bidding up prices into the 7 digits.

geez not more of this rich xxxx bullshit.

re: buying for immigration – if i were a rich asian (who's to say i aint?) why wouldnt i buy in any other canadian city with better financial metrics than vancouver.

You dont have to own in vancouver specifically for canadian citizenship do you?

As for setting up the wife and kids in Vancouver – last time i checked, you can live in vancouver without owning.

@paulb.: Damn, just over ten short!

By the way, this has got to be the biggest inventory in recorded history? Or close to it?

The other day Larry Y's site showed ~700 listings. Was that an anomaly or several days worth rolled into one?

Re: the rich Asians. Does anybody have cold hard immigration numbers? Our city has always had a lot of immigration, and China has had many years of consecutive 9-10% GDP growth. Why do people think that suddenly in mid 2009-2010, that Asians got rich? Was there a spike in immigration? I doubt it.

Plus, Toronto and Montreal still get more immigrants every year.

@paulb.:

I don’t remember any days cracking 500 in 2008.

You are right. The maximum we hit in 2008 was 445 on May 09. Wowieeeeeeeeeeeeee.