What the Analysts say about Vancouver Real Estate for 2009

January 5th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate

Scotiabank’s senior economist Adrienne Warren says Canadian real estate prices will drop 10-15% nationally, with B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan taking the brunt of the downturn., much of the runup in prices seen this decade will remain in tact.

Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP) report agrees with Warren that BC will suffer disproportionately in the downturn, however, because investors were more than elsewhere in Canada.

Cameron Muir of BCREA believes BC could see an upswing in housing markets as early as spring 2009.

CMHC see a further drop of up to 9% in 2009

Ozzie Jurock sees increased activity in Spring and sales lower in 2009 and calls for us to start thinking positively.

Re/Max said Metro Vancouver will have experienced a 33-per-cent drop in sales by the end of 2008, and 2009 sales should end at the same level. Vancouver’s average price at the end of 2009 should be seven per cent below 2008’s average price

Author Nicolas Marr has a passion for international real estate and is director of international canadian property website. He chooses Vancouver as a city for sound investment and relocation and thinks it has a fabulous future.

The Economist again votes Vancouver #1 for the world’s most liveable city. An amazing endorsement indeed!

Other points of interest:

Across the country, downward movement of house prices are only 3% year-over-year in the third quarter (compared with a 5 to 15% decline in the U.S.)

International studies conducted by agencies such as the International Monetary Fund have found that Canada is still considered to be one of the countries where the housing market is least overvalued

Canada’s housing market is also much less vulnerable given the very limited sub-prime mortgage activity (5% of outstanding mortgages compared to approximately 14% in the U.S.)

The speculative sector is relatively small

Housing affordability – which had deteriorated over the past two years – will improve with the recent significant rate cuts by the Bank of Canada and softer house prices.

They all agree that consumer confidence is one of the property market’s biggest challenges.

when you’re ready to buy or sell Vancouver real estate, contact Maggie, an experienced realtor marketing homes since 1981.

this site is updated regularly, subscribe via RSS or email. the above info while deemed to be correct should not be relied upon but verified

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 8:33 am and is filed under Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

No Comment »

Ryan Philipenko said:

Looks like it’s going to be another challenging year out west, but I’m sure most are up for the challenge.

Ryan Philipenko – Edmonton Real Estate

# 5 January 2009 at 11:48 am

womp said:

The problem with blaming “consumer confidence” is that optimism isn’t a currency. If consumer confidence was at 100%, we’d still be increasing debts and bubbling our way to new highs. Mish calls it “borrowing from the future”, and it’s an apt description.

The real problem is that house prices are too high and that too many “experts” encouraged too much debt to buy them.

Optimism doesn’t pay debts.

# 7 January 2009 at 1:13 pm