Attached is the Housing Price Index for July 2008 which is provided by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
The chart shows up to date information on current median prices by area for attached, detached and apartment properties. The chart also shows the 1 year change, 3 year change and 5 year change.
If you are a first time buyer or investor, this summer is a good time to be looking at buying property. The inventory is actually very high quality and available inventory is competing on price to find the right buyer. At this moment in time the supply is high and demand is low. To see an up to date graph on Supply vs. Demand read the market forecast.
Similar to last month listing supplies are still up (although there was a small decline in active listings in July over June) and demand is still down. Click on the graph to the right to analyze supply vs. demand for July 2008 in comparison to July 2007.
Vancouver is getting press worldwide as a great place to live. Did you know that other cities have created a verb out of our city? Yes city planners are trying to Vancouverize their downtown cores and now we are an idealogy too – yes Vancouverism! Read about it on the website www.vancouverism.ca which features the travelling exhibit currently on display in London and then onto Paris.
The Bank of Canada announced today that the overnight target rate will stay at 3%. This means that prime will likely remain at 4.75%. They state the three factors affecting the economy are: