Housing prices up again
West Vancouver residents face a shortage of affordable housing options.
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Updated: October 07, 2009 1:47 PM
Lower Mainland home prices continued to climb in September.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's benchmark price of a detached house gained 1.2 per cent last month to $741,600 – that's up 2.1 per cent from a year ago.
And the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board recorded a 1.6 per cent gain in detached house prices in September to $491,400. That's down 1.5 per cent from a year ago.
The gains since the market bottomed out in March have now largely erased the declines last year and early in 2009 due to the global financial crisis and recession.
Realtor associations credit the impact of low interest rates in spurring sales.
And a new Ipsos Reid poll shows B.C. residents are much more confident about the stability of the real estate market than they were a few months ago.
The survey found 52 per cent of B.C. residents expect home prices in their community rise in the next year – up from just 20 per cent who said that in January.
Ipsos Reid research manager Hanson Lok called it a "major shift" to more optimistic consumer sentiment.
Lower Mainland residents are the most optimistic in the province, expecting on average a 5.6 per cent gain in prices in the next 12 months.
Lok noted the planned Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), which will push up the prices of newly built homes, is a new area of concern for prospective buyers.
About 20 per cent of those surveyed said they may hold off buying to see how the HST affects the market, while significant numbers also said they may consider a resale home instead of buying new or spend less than they previously planned as a result of the HST.
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