Spark posted this link in an earlier thread. If you havent seen this yet its worth watching: the US housing market from 1890 to the present rendered as a rollercoaster ride. You really get a visceral feel from the peaks and dips.
This video was created by the fine folks at speculativebubble.com
.. so who wants to make one of these for the GVRD? I bet the 1980-82 section would be particularly exciting.
Well it looks like we’ve got another strong start to the spring season, at least when it comes to the Real Estate Boards benchmark price for a single family home. I don’t have all the numbers yet, but theres a short story in the Sun, and here’s my short-term chart:
So it looks like the sub-prime mortage meltdown in the US hasn’t fazed this market yet - Not only that, we’ve got more listings, less sales and prices are still going up! It really is different this time!
UPDATE: Here are the March benchmark prices for the GVRD, and the price charts for townhouses and apartments - Everythings up this month, it must be springtime!
GVRD Benchmark prices, March 2007:
Detached: $682,173
Attached: $428,299
Apartment: $349,373
Short term housing charts, Attached & Apartments:
Thanks to Agent Will for the March stats package. This is a very peculiar market, at these prices buyers must be counting on continued appreciation.
It looks like we may not be totally immune to the housing market woes in the US - In the previous thread Freako posted this link: Lumber prices are down almost 25% from a year ago. How much of the BC economy is based on wood trade with the US?
Wow. Not only did February see a stop to the dropping benchmark price, it leaped back up to a new peak featuring the number of the beast: $666,983
I haven’t seen stats for apartments and townhomes yet, but I’ll add those graphs when they’re available.
Update: here they are, craziness in every sector. Buy now before everyone is priced out forever.
Stats are from agentwill, he’ll email you the full stats, but I just grabbed the February benchmark numbers from his post at Realestatetalks.