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July 2010: sales and prices down

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197 Comments

The hot summer is not so hot for the Vancouver real estate market which seems to be withering on the vine. July saw the third month of price declines that started at the April peak. If this keeps up how much longer will we be able to hold on to our coveted ‘most overpriced real estate in North America’ status?

Here’s the story in the Sun: Sales plummet in July

Lower Mainland real estate markets saw their slowest or near slowest July in a decade, the region’s real estate boards reported Wednesday, with sales down by almost half from July 2009’s red-hot markets and prices slipping from the previous month’s levels.

Here’s the Globe and Mail: Vancouver Homes Market goes cold

And there’s a lot of supply on the market, threatening to pull prices lower, with inventory levels 33 per cent higher than this time last year, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

“With the pace of home sales and listings easing off in our market, we’ve begun to see a levelling of home prices from the record highs seen in the spring, creating greater affordability,” said Jake Moldowan, the board’s president. “Activity in today’s marketplace is clearly trending in favour of buyers.”

Here’s the PDF stats package and Crashcow rounded up the following list of benchmark price slippage since April:

Residential (GVRD)
Greater Vancouver: -3%

DETACHED
Greater Vancouver: -3%
Burnaby: -2%
Coquitlam: -5%
Maple Ridge: -3%
New Westminster: 3%
North Vancouver: -3%
Pitt Meadows: -7%
Port Coquitlam: -7%
Port Moody: -3%
Richmond: -3%
South Delta: -5%
Vancouver East: -3%
Vancouver West: -4%
West Vancouver: -3%

ATTACHED
Greater Vancouver: -2%
Burnaby: 0%
Coquitlam: -5%
Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows: -2%
North Vancouver: -4%
Port Coquitlam: 0%
Port Moody: -6%
Richmond: 1%
South Delta: -1%
Vancouver East: -8%
Vancouver West: -4%

APARTMENT
Greater Vancouver: -2%
Burnaby: -2%
Coquitlam: 0%
Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows: -2%
New Westminster: -3%
North Vancouver: -2%
Port Coquitlam: -1%
Port Moody: 0%
Richmond: 0%
South Delta: -2%
Vancouver East: -5%
Vancouver West: -3%
West Vancouver: -12%

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Disbelief

I’m continually amazed that houses in East Van, sitting in a sea of unattractive Vancouver Specials with poor transit access and nearby services, cost a lot more than New West. I have a friend that lives in New West and he's always asking me to have coffee in his hood. I have took him up on his offer few times and each time I do I can't wait to get out of there. Many zombies and hood rats, to me it has very few redeeming qualities that make for a decent neighbourhood. There is one street with lovely tree lined street and huge heritage homes on nice sized lots but the rest of it is nothing special. It is funny how he thinks his little home on a small flat lot will be appreciating forever. I have another friend that… Read more »

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Anonymous

as a long I was voting your

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Devore

@Anonymouse:

Its not the boomers that will be affected. They bought their houses long ago when prices were low. Unless they took out HELOCs or bought multiple investment properties in the last few years, boomers will be fine. Its the folks who bought in the last 5 years that will be hurting i.e. mostly likely folks in their 30’s. As usual, the boomers will make out like bandits and screw over the following generations.

Most boomers retirement plan is their house. How will they be fine, exactly?

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Ed

Some of the Hawaiian airlines rates out of SEA are as low as $135 each way. As usual play with the dates.

http://www.hawaiianair.com/

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realpaul

I found the news story about a single instance of raw sewage escaping into Halifax harbour really funny. It made the National rotation on all the stations. Vancouver dumps an estimated 800 million liters a day of untreated raw sewage into the waters of English bay, False creek and the Harbour….every day of the year. There is certainly a credibility gap in the news coverage. Vancouvers case is public information for all to see as COV vs DOFAO-Regina before the Supreme Court of Canada. Dr David Suzuki and the UBC marine bio-labs have proven that 99% of all sealife in the waters surrounding Vancouver is too toxic to eat and displays cancerous lesions ….. there is an infectious strain of incurable bacteria infecting beach goers that has washed up on the beach having been discharged as hospital waste ( it… Read more »

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chilled

@Cody:

Let me help;

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=He…

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oneangryslav2

@Cody:

And why would I have to put on my helmet Mr. Genus?

That's Mr. Genus-Species, to you.

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VHB

@Anonymouse: ok. humour was lost. I was quoting samantha's mis-spelling for humour.

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Anonymous

@Anonymous: "Over 95% of all airline seats sold are not “full price” and are therefore a seat sale."

Where did you pull that stat out of?

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Anonymous

@Anonymous:

"I don’t think booking a few flights out of Bellingham is going to make too much difference."

You are dense. The millions that they are investing in the airport there is not to cater to locals… they are targeting people from the GVR. Yes, it will make a difference.

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Anonymous

Anon:

"You are dumb to say almost all tickets are a ’seat sale.’"

Over 95% of all airline seats sold are not "full price" and are therefore a seat sale. No one pays full price unless they have to fly a specific day and time and are stuck paying it. Usually for business on short notice. I suggest you find someone to help you out if you ever do decide to travel.

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Anonymous

VHB:

"Yes, taking bottles of liquor through airports is so troublefree. Ha! If you check it, high risk of theft. Or it breaks all over your clothes. If you take as carry on. Whoops! CATSA employees get to drink it."

Just pay for it at duty free in the airport and it is waiting for you packed in bubble wrap upon boarding. No hassle at all. I would do that even if traveling through Bellingham as it is easier than stopping at the border. It sounds like all the commentators have never traveled as they seem to be unaware of the basics. Who packs booze? Especially with the current luggage weight restrictions. Only a novice newbie would do that.

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Cody

And why would I have to put on my helmet Mr. Genus?

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Anonymouse

@VHB:

“Crantinis” That would be cranteeny’s, actually.

Actually I think fixie is right, its a cranberry martini therefore it should be -tini-, not -teeny-. Wow, I feel foolish spelling it cranteeny this whole time. I blame Samantha D. for this.

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Anonymous

@Anonymous:

No one mentioned HST and everyone is talking about taxes-in BTW.

You still can't show sub $400 return-flights for Vancouver.

You are dumb to say almost all tickets are a 'seat sale.' … And you are horrible with your guesses.

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VHB

@Anonymous: "The same booze is available in other states such as Hawaii. Man you are dumb. "

Yes, taking bottles of liquor through airports is so troublefree. Ha! If you check it, high risk of theft. Or it breaks all over your clothes. If you take as carry on. Whoops! CATSA employees get to drink it.

Been there, done that, lost the 100 euro bottle of scotch . . .

I would be picking it up in Bellingham, myself.

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crashcow

@Anonymous: great video find! here's a fixed link: http://tinyurl.com/2bfbdwm (skip to 30 min mark)

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Anonymous

Meth: "I’d like to know how you “never pay more than $400″. This is the absolute best fare I could find all in, a blowout sale from Westjet" I guess I am smarter than you. Cut back on the Meth. Anon: "I assume you don’t understand the tax difference between travelling Can to US vs. US to US." Yes the HST does not apply to flights out of Canada. I was talking all in including taxes BTW. "If you want to ‘wait’ for a seat sale, why don’t you wait till Allegiantair introduces their Bellingham Hawaii route. Family of 4 and you can easily save $1000 for flights out of Bellingham." Almost any airline ticket you buy is a "seat sale". I will wait and see when it happens. "Then shop in the US before you come home. Pick up… Read more »

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VHB

@fixie guy: "Crantinis" That would be cranteeny's, actually. 😉

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fixie guy

"As usual, the boomers will make out like bandits and screw over the following generations."

Boomers are historically the worst savers and won't be sipping Crantinis into the sunset years. Don't get your demographic data from Fark.

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Confused_among_rich_asians

Buff Butler, thank you for your explanation. I agree that it doesn’t make sense to purchase such a property. I have done the math a few years back and that’s why I haven’t bought and am on this blog. The original premise was the property was already bought and selling would incur 100k loss. I see more choosing to hold at the miniscule yield than losing 100k outright. If there are a lot of people in such a position, that might explain why inventory hasn’t been growing like we thought it would. As long as the negative cash flow is less than principal portion of mortgage, they’ll hold.

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Anonymous

Michael Hyatt who co-founder, BlueCat Networks (a very rich guy) was co hosting the Lang and O’Leary exchange on CBC today when they discussed Canadian real estate 30 minutes in.

Check it out as Michael reveals he has lots of money but sold his principle residence 6 months ago to rent because he doesn’t see the value (he lives in Ontario). He is planning on buying back in when prices drop. Some very bearish comments about Canadian housing in general.

After the 15 second commercial move to 30 minutes in for the segment for the part on real estate.

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/Lang_&amp…

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Anonymouse

There will be many so called rich baby boomers living on cat food long into their golden years.

Its not the boomers that will be affected. They bought their houses long ago when prices were low. Unless they took out HELOCs or bought multiple investment properties in the last few years, boomers will be fine. Its the folks who bought in the last 5 years that will be hurting i.e. mostly likely folks in their 30's. As usual, the boomers will make out like bandits and screw over the following generations.

@GB:

This may be the ugliest house I have ever seen.

What the hell IS that? A former prison? Cult headquarters? Gulag dormitory? That is nasty!! And they're asking for $2M!! Gah!! *shoots self in head*

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Just a Bear in the H

It seems that some of my messages don't get through. Are links held in moderation?

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Animal Spirit

@VHB: Great find VHB – funny enough even with 17 months of inventory, residential median and average prices are flat since April (i.e. distributional changes).

This one will be ground zero for the B.C. bust. Watch what happens, particularly with new developments and foreclosure sales.

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