Vancouver remains one of the most expensive cities’s to live, where couples, families or singles need up to 70 per cent of their incomes to even just get into this strong housing market, however, this shouldn’t be a complete surprise to Vancouverites soon after inviting the world to our door-step, as the Olympics have come and gone, with great success, and huge expense. Vancouver becomes an elite choice for those who value lifestyle choices. This happened on a smaller scale back in Expo 1986; the success of Expo was directly related to the diversity this wonderful city can offer those who need the mountains, the ocean, a rain forest, and even a desert, a modern, safe, clean, city with good schools, and a decent health-care system. That very need for the best this world can offer comes at a premium, higher costs of living. Recent statistics state that Homes sales appear to be stabilizing in Vancouver despite a drop from last September and prices are on the rise again, statistics show. Numbers from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) show that 2,220 residential properties were sold throughout Greater Vancouver in Sept. 2010. A 0.8-per-cent rise from August, 2010, though still a 37.6 per cent decrease from the 3,559 total homes that were sold in September of 2009. Jake Moldowan, President of the REBGV, says the drop is not as alarming as it may look, given that sales numbers this month were a 0.8-per-cent increase over August 2010 and overall are trending healthy “The numbers can be misleading-September 2009 was an anomaly, we just had a smoking hot month of sales then. Over the past year sales have returned back to very normal, positive levels.” Compared to April’s all-time record high of $593,419 prices dipped just 2.7-per-cent to $577,174 this month, though when compared to Sept. 2009 the prices have overall increased by 5.5-per-cent.
Vancouver’s west side and Richmond are still trending strong; the numbers of foreign buyers within the city has increased dramatically since the city’s positive exposure during the Olympics. Jake Moldowan continues “Typically one-and –a half to two per cent of our sales are attributed to foreign buyers-in August our numbers were around four per cent and in September they were about six per cent. There’s no question in this buyer’s market the world is thinking Vancouver is a great place to buy” Lifestyle. How much time do you have left this time around? You deserve a quality, rewarding, life, we all do, how much can you afford? Look forward to my next blog, see you all then! Peace.