First-time home buyers received welcome news in today’s provincial budget. Any REALTORS® currently working with first-time buyers will want to share this news with them as soon as possible.

The government has announced, effective February 19, 2014, under the Property Transfer Tax (PTT) First-Time Home Buyers’ Exemption program, qualifying first-time buyers can buy a home worth up to $475,000. The previous threshold was $425,000.

The partial exemption continues and will apply to homes valued between $475,000 and $500,000.

With this change, the government estimates 1,700 additional...

CentreBlock by Liberty Homes at UniverCity atop Burnaby Mountain is the latest condo project with sales commencing early 2014. 

CentreBlock, named after its location in the heart of the UniverCity shopping district across from Nester grocery store, will span an entire block.  The complex is comprised of two structures; a 6 story mid-rise building comprised of mixed use commercial and residential which will be connected to a 16 story hi-res residential building and a 3 story wood frame building consisting of 26 townhomes.  Ideally located close to shopping, Highlands Elementary School,...

According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales activity posted its fifth consecutive month-over-month decline in January 2014.

Highlights:
National home sales fell 3.3% from December to January. Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 0.4% above January 2013 levels. The number of newly listed homes edged up 0.2% from December to January.
The Canadian housing market remains in balanced territory. The national average sale price rose 9.5% on a year-over-year basis in January. The MLS® Home Price Index...

Housing starts in Canada were trending at 191,456 units in January compared to 194,518 in December, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)¹ of housing starts.

“The trend in housing starts decreased slightly in January, while the inventory of newly completed and unabsorbed units saw a modest downward trend in the last half of 2013. This is consistent with our expectation that builders will continue to gradually adjust activity in order to manage their levels of inventory,”...

Montréal, Quebec—The Bank of Canada’s flexible inflation target has served Canada well in both tranquil and turbulent times and remains the right policy framework to address the current economic environment of persistently weak inflation, Senior Deputy Governor Tiff Macklem said today in a lecture at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business in Montréal.
“Inflation targeting was designed against a backdrop of high inflation, but its key features of symmetry and flexibility also give us room to manoeuvre in an environment of disinflation.”
Mr....

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) expects the number of housing starts to stabilize in 2014 and 2015. Support from improved economic and demographic fundamentals will be tempered by a combination of a modest and gradual increase in mortgage rates and a slowdown in demand from first-time buyers, according to CMHC’s first quarter 2014 Housing Market Outlook, Canada Edition¹.

“With a relatively high number of units currently under construction, we expect builders will gradually adjust their activity in order to reduce their level of inventory,” said Mathieu...

The first month of 2014 saw home sale and listing totals outpace historical averages in the Greater Vancouver housing market. 

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver reached 1,760 on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in January 2014. This represents a 30.3 per cent increase compared to the 1,351 sales recorded in January 2013, and a 9.9 per cent decline compared to the 1,953 sales in December 2013.

Last month’s sales were 7.2 per cent above the 10-year sales average for the month.

“The...

2014 is the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of our Foundation in 1964.  Year after year, BC Branch members, volunteers and supporters, like Hafez Panju, have helped the foundation  invest more than $100 million in life-saving kidney research across Canada.  Last year British Columbians donated over $860,000 to support promising kidney research as determined by a panel of Canada’s top kidney researchers.  Without the dedicated and committed support from generous donors like Hafez none of this would be possible. 

A few years ago, the BC Branch made a commitment...