Here are the average prices by city and province.

Vancouver is still te most expensive and in the eyes of the world the most desirable city to live in.

Most of the prices have come down to close to 2007 levels, but interestingly, both Regina and Saskatoon are way ahead of the 2007 prices.

It is interesting to see that it costs 50% more to live in Yellowknife than in Montreal.

If you are looking to Buy or to Sell real estate in Vancouver area, give me a call. My consultations are FREE. The benefits to You, may be worth a lot of money.
Call Jeff Stark at 604-506-8481 or email me at jeff@jeffreystark.net

The rates now are so low thatit may be a good time to have a look at your mortgage to see if there are benefits to refinancing.

The Bank of Canada reduced its key interest rate by a quarter point today to its lowest level ever.  In its announcement the Bank also stated that it expects to hold this policy rate at its current level until the end of the second quarter of 2010, conditional on the outlook for inflation. 

While rates for variable rate mortgages are typically impacted by Bank of Canada policy rate changes, what's interesting is that rates for popular five-year fixed rate mortgages have been declining significantly in recent months.  The reason behind this drop is an abundant supply of money being put into circulation, as well as guarantees of government agencies to purchase mortgage investments.

A comparison of fixed rates today versus six months ago shows a noticeable improvement in purchasing power. 

Six months ago, a competitive rate on a five-year fixed mortgage was 5.75 per cent.  At this rate, the monthly payment on a $250,000 mortgage with a 25-year amortization was $1,563.  With the five-year rate of 3.95 per cent available today, the monthly payment falls to $1,308, which adds up to a savings of $15,300 in payments over the five year term. 

An Invis mortgage professional can explain current trends in mortgage rates, and can advise you on the a mortgage option that suits your needs.  

 To check out your refinancing option call:

ALLEN CHENG - Senior Mortgage Consultant
INVIS  GROUP

5604-313-7000
email: allencheng@invis.ca

If you are looking to Buy or to Sell real estate in Vancouver area, give me a call. My consultations are FREE. The benefits to You, may be worth a lot of money.
Call Jeff Stark at 604-506-8481 or email me at jeff@jeffreystark.net

RATE CHANGE - LOWEST IN HISTORY 

The Bank of Canada lowers the overnight rate by.25% to a rate of .25%. Mark Carney,  the Governor of the Bank of Canada, stated that this cut is due to the intensified Global Recession of all major world economies. He stated that he does not see Canada's economy start to recover until the last ¼  of 2009 but the full recovery will take until 2011. The overnight rate is said to remain stable until 2010.  

In total the Bank of Canada has reduced its overnight rate by 425 basis points since Dec 2007.  When the economy does start to return to full production the Bank of Canada will have to remove the stimulus that it has injected into the market place, telling us that we can expect a rather significant jump in the rates 2012 onward; the 425 put in will have to be removed once we are in a normal to growing economy.

So much for the good news.

BUT IF YOU ARE A BUYER?

While it is true that there is ample money to lend once again, the lenders and insures have made some changes to underwriting guidelines that are important for you to be aware of.

• Currently most lenders are only using CMHC for high ratio mortgages. Genworth and AIG are not being used by most lenders because of the concern that they will not be able to payout on future claims due to financial viability.
• CMHC and Genworth have changed their underwriting guidelines from using up to 44% of gross income to be used for qualification to 35% of gross income for housing costs and 42% for housing plus additional fixed debt payments. This will mean that people pre approved may no longer be approved once the file goes live. I would suggest that you speak with your purchasers and have them talk to their mortgage broker to confirm that they are still looking at the correct price range
• Lenders and CMHC are taking several days to process applications. When the purchaser presents us with the purchase agreement, their file is finally reviewed in detail by the lender and is sent to the insurer to obtain an approval. CMHC is taking up to 1-2 days to review applications in certain cases ( those where the EMILI system is not granting an auto approval - which is 50% of the applications currently). Lenders have taken up to 7 days to process applications due to volume.
• CMHC has essentially dropped the Self Employed program which may effect any pre approvals in the pipeline. Deals approved 2-3 weeks ago can no longer get approved.

I have noticed that CMHC is now questioning value... which is unfortunate as they are about 3 months behind schedule. The real estate market is starting to heat up in certain market areas with competing offers on good, well priced properties; and CMHC is finally questioning the value. This is resulting in them scrutinizing over any offer going above the list price.

Realtors feel the need to tighten up their offers to ensure success for their buyers and vendors, but the lenders and CMHC are taking more time to process the files.

As you can see, there is a disconnect within the total process.. please keep these changes in mind when dealing with your purchasers and your negotiation of contracts so that we can ensure that the clients experience remains a positive experience.

THese comments courtesy of;

Paula Siemens -AMP
INVIS - SIEMENS GROUP

 If you are looking to Buy or to Sell real estate in Vancouver area, give me a call. My consultations are FREE. The benefits to You, may be worth a lot of money.
Call Jeff Stark at 604-506-8481 or email me at jeff@jeffreystark.net 

Highlights from the TD Financial Group

•·         Speculation by homebuyers drove house prices beyond levels justified by fundamentals and induced an excess of new housing relative to sustainable levels - particularly on Canada's prairies.

•·         Affordability eroded severely over the last two years, demonstrating an unsustainable disconnect between house prices and incomes that was due for a correction.

•·         Inventories of singles have burgeoned in western markets and unsold multiples are at worrying levels in Québec.  The historically elevated construction of condos in Toronto and Vancouver mean that these cities' inventories will spike during 2009 and only alleviate slightly during 2010.

•·         The cyclical downturn will depress housing demand during 2009, but recent overbuilding will prevent a quick recovery.  In particular, as migration ebbs to the prairies, residential construction will experience a protracted slump.

• However, Canada will not experience a U.S.-style housing crash, owing to less overbuilding and more conservative lending institutions

read the full report here....

If you are looking to Buy or to Sell real estate in Vancouver area, give me a call. My consultations are FREE. The benefits to You, may be worth a lot of money.
Call Jeff Stark at 604-506-8481 or email me at jeff@jeffreystark.net

Friday, April 3, 2009

VANCOUVER, B.C. - The Metro Vancouver housing market experienced a movement away from volatility and toward stability to start the spring season.
Home sales in March 2009 returned to levels witnessed at the beginning of the decade, with 2,265 sales recorded across Metro Vancouver for the month, a 53 per cent increase over February but a 24.4 per cent decrease over March 2008, when 2,997 sales were recorded.
Since 1999, March sales have increased 31 per cent, on average, over the month of February. March 2009 marks the second consecutive month that sales have outperformed the ten-year average for this month-over-month comparison.

"There's more confidence in the housing market today than we were seeing late last year. Sales activity is rising to more typical levels given the season, and the number of homes being listed for sale is levelling off," said Scott Russell, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

New residential listings on the MLS® declined 22 per cent in March 2009 to 4,385 compared to March 2008. This is the fifth month in a row that new listings have decreased year-over-year and the third consecutive month where those declines exceeded 20 per cent.

Despite these trends, total active listings at the end of March 2009 had still reached 14,579, a 19 per cent increase compared to the end of March 2008.

"REALTORS® are seeing an increasing level of interest from first-time buyers who are attracted to low interest rates, good supply of housing, greater affordability, and a considerably lower overall cost of servicing a mortgage compared to recent years," Russell said.

Sales of detached properties in March 2009 declined 19.6 per cent to 897 from the 1,116 units sold during the same period in 2008. The benchmark price, as calculated by the MLSLink Housing Price Index®, for detached properties declined 15.1 per cent from March 2008 to $649,342.

Sales of apartment properties declined 28.8 per cent last month to 976, compared to the 1,370 sales in March 2008. The benchmark price of an apartment property declined 13.5 per cent from March 2008 to $337,099.

For more information please contact:
Craig Munn, Assistant Manager of Communications
Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver
Phone: (604) 730-3146 

If you are looking to Buy or to Sell real estate in Vancouver area, give me a call. My consultations are FREE. The benefits to You, may be worth a lot of money.
Call Jeff Stark at 604-506-8481 or email me at jeff@jeffreystark.net