The January Metro Vancouver real estate stats has not break from pattern. Continued strength for condos and townhouses, while detached homes are in a more balanced market. Good condo units are getting multiple offers. Faced with the reality of extreme pricing in the lower mainland more and more people are moving in to the Fraser Valley. In fact Maple Ridge and Mission are where the action is at! According to Re/Max the sale-to-active listing ratio for the two weeks ending Feb 2nd for East Vancouver and Burnaby are 7% and 12% respectively; while it is 26% for both Maple Ridge and Mission.
And if you are once again pondering the reasons behind the price movement in the local real estate market, there has been some excellent articles written in the last month. This article highlights the movement of immigrants through the Quebec Immigrant Investor Program. It states of the 46000 immigrants that came through the QIIP in the last 3 decades almost half (28,000) are living in BC by 2016. If each of them spent 1 million in BC real estate, that would be 28 billion dollars. But this is not the only immigrant investor program. There was a Federal program that was “cancelled” but they are still processing the backlog of applicants. Also, many provinces have their own programs, but it seems like a good majority eventually end up in BC or Ontario. Or at least buying in these areas. For instance, the two individuals in this article which highlights the unethical and often illegal tactics used by wealthy immigrants to profit from our real estate came through programs in Manitoba and Prince Edward Island. Though probably having a smaller effect is the money that is being laundered through our local casinos and transferred to our real estate market.
And to cool down the real estate market, the government has continually changed mortgage rules. It has made the mortgage market more complicated and produced some unintended consequences. As a result, if your mortgage is up for renewal at the big banks this year it is believed that the renewal rate will not as good. More than ever, I would recommend calling your mortgage broker for a price quote 3 to 4 months before maturity.
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