rich people aren't stupid
stupid people don't get rich

I think the problem with the Olympic Village development is that mainland China buyers simply can't appreciate the cum stains when flying over the buildings by helicopter. Take the Sydney Crosby suite for example, the sights and smells of that gently used unit have to be appreciated first hand – boots on the ground.

Interesting read and another preview for Canada?

Fannie, Freddie Phaseout Proposed
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052…

Jeez, another day and another real estate pump story on the front page of the Sun website… Those guys are relentless slaves to their realwhore masters!

@Eddie:

And what a lead:

"Despite Vancouver's high real estate price, there are still several neighbourhoods where detached homes can be found for well below the $1 million mark…"

Well goodness gracious me, under a million you say? Better act fast, heaven knows, such bargains will not last.

@BoB: Since Carney is an ex Goldman Sachs VP aka tentacle #48 on the squid, he will probably follow Geithner's lead and wipe out the CMHC as well. Soon after the banks will have to lend their own money, (God forbid, can you imagine such an atrocity?! their OWN damn money!) House prices would quickly correct to 3-5 times average incomes. Good luck re-financing all you 0/40 ers and 5/35 ers.

A couple of people commented yesterday that the % sold at or above list would be more useful by community. Here's a sample.

Detached House – Last 14 days

Van West – 41%

Richmond – 39%

Van East – 32%

N Van – 26%

W Van – 17%

Surrey – 10%

And since its all over the news;

S Surrey / White Rock – 13%

And for the condo lovers:

Residential Attached – Last 14 Days

Van West – 18%

But can one make a statement that the market is hot by just using the numbers of list/over list sales? Aren't sales for the month currently running at a below average pace and listings are mounting, rapidly?

@VHB: I too am fascinated by the number of people willing to pay above asking for what is most likely the biggest purchase of their life. I think it really speaks to the psychology of the market.

@Not much of a name…: Good points. I just started looking at this data and don't have my head around it yet. But if you look at my post yesterday the % sold at or over lists correlates pretty well with rising or falling prices. My guess is it is a good indicator of what is happening right now but maybe not at good as MOI for what will happen in the coming months. However, the ratio does have one advantage in that it seems to not be affected by seasonality.

@Seymour Data: I should have added that yes your data is fascinating. It's just another way of looking at the market. Keep up the good work.

Finally snapped and wrote my MP and MLA today. So pissed off about not being able to afford a home here to raise a family. My wife and myself have good incomes, but taking on a 600k mortgage would be sheer insanity. The White Rock article seriously pissed me off. Tired of reading about our properties being sold to wealthy Chinese buyers who don't live here or add any value to our communities. The people that work hard and add value get seriously screwed over by this… I'm seriously considering moving to somewhere like San Diego where I can get a higher paying job and a much nicer house.

selling over-list has a lot to do with marketing.

Friends sold a condo in the summer of 09. Their Realtor had them list 60k under comparables. His reasoning was that there were so many places on the market and people can only visit so many open houses. So, to get more interest, they listed lower and due to this, had a huge number of people show up for the open house and sold it the next week for higher than comparables.

@jesse: Interesting. What I'm hoping is that knowing the % sold at or above list will help explain those months where listings are increasing, sales are slowing and still the benchmark price goes up. Drives me nuts when I can't explain something.

@808: So in your example, despite listing the property low, a sale above list actually raised the average price of the comparables.