Vancouver Secrets

Vancouver Leads the Country

photo credit: labanex

Vancouver leads the real estate trend and dragged the average price of an existing home in Canada lower last month.

The August sales numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show 3 consecutive monthly drops in existing-home prices. This will be the largest decline in more than nine years.

Sales fell by 53.4 per cent in greater Vancouver in August compared with the year before, and average prices dropped by 4 per cent for both detached homes and condo units, to $737,985 and $374,366, respectively.

This is following July’s overall housing unit sales drop of 44 per cent.

According to Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., the cooling of the Vancouver market is the most “disturbing” figure in a series of recently released housing data, including national new-home prices, building permit applications and housing starts.

“The drop was pretty serious, especially coming on the back of a big sales drop there the month before. When you’ve got sales for your most expensive city falling like that, that’s going to knock the stuffing out of the national average,” he said. “The other [economic] data was a little better than expected, but it can be choppy from month to month, and continues to show the market is cooling.”

The market here in Vancouver is still ridiculously high - but there’s hope for those of us waiting for this correction to play out.

I am betting prices will be down at least 20% by next spring.

Doesn’t Frozen Water Expand?

photo credit: Rita Willaert

The Vancouver Sun did an article on how we are all going to drown soon… forgot to mention when.

Got me thinking…

- If the icebergs all melt - and 90% of it is under water - wouldn’t sea levels actually decline?

- What is the agenda for scaring people about rising sea levels?

- If global warming has begun, why is it so damn cold here? Let’s let it go for another few degrees.

- anyone care to look at the increasing ice at the south pole?

I’m a skeptic mainly because David Suzuki scared the hell out of me in grade three - life on earth was supposed to be ended by now. 40 years later, the air is cleaner, we have more trees and life is good.

May be a good time to buy some waterfront property soon.

85 Million for Homeless

photo credit: Laura Grace

According to this Globe and Mail article, the government will be spending another $85 million on helping the homeless with shelters - and this is only the amount listed and doesn’t include welfare already given (average $969/person), or existing project costs.

So let’s say conservatively they are spending $100 million on new projects.

Divide this by the estimated number of homeless in the east side - 2,592 - according to this count.

This works out to $40,000 per person.

Average salary in Vancouver = $51,628 (family).

Interesting…

The average Canadian spends $11,200 a year on housing. Government-run supportive housing where residents get social services, such as counseling costs $28,000 a year.

You’d think that with the kind of money they throw at the problem, there would be a decline in homelessness…

You’d be wrong.

In the US, homelessness has been in decline. The number of chronically homeless people living in the nation’s streets and shelters has dropped by about 30 percent — from 175,914 to 123,833 — from 2005 to 2007.

The US project called “Housing First” is working… I’m hoping that Vancouver is going in this direction.

Vancouver is doing at lot in preparation for the Olympics - hiding the embarassment of the homeless situation seems to be top priority now.

Please Come Visit Vancouver…

photo credit: frielp

Vancouver has seen a decline of six per cent in American tourists this year compared to last. You can see it on the roads with the absence of American license plates.

Stretched over the course of the year, that number is significant, said Walt Judas of Tourism Vancouver.

“We’re talking between 150,000 to 200,000 overnight visitors from the U.S., which is a substantial number,” he said.

Usual numbers are 8.7 million tourists a year and $3.7 billion in visitor spending. A drop of 6% equals 220 million dollars.

Victoria isn’t taking things lying down.. with a huge ferry price increase on the way (as much as 18 per cent on August 1st),  Tourism Victoria is partnering with BC Ferries to offer a one-time promotion for August travel — book two nights accommodation in Greater Victoria and Tourism Victoria will pay your way there.

Maybe dropping the ridiculously high gas and sales taxes for August might help?

Bringing prices in line would make a big difference. After the uproar when the Canadian dollar hit parity with the US, I’ve yet to see prices come down. The indifference shown by the retail industry when it comes to fair pricing is going to cost them dearly in the long run.

Tourism is one of the largest industries here… time to treat it as a business facing challenges.