Good news for first time home buyers.  The government has announced effective February 19 (tomorrow), they will bring up the qualifying home for First time Homebuyers.  Under the Property Transfer Tax (PTT) First Time Home Buyers Exemption program, the qualifying home can worth up to $475,000 now then the previous threshold of $425,000.

There wil be a partial exemption between $475,000 and $500,000.  It was estimated that there wil be 1700 additional first time buyers who will be eligible annually to save up to $7500 in PTT when they buy their home, this will cost the government lost tax revenue of $8Million annually.

The Real Estate Board, together with BCREA, has been lobbying to make home ownership more affordable for first time home buyers for the past years.  As a result, in 2008, the provincial government increased the threshold from $375,000 to $425,000, in 2005, from $275,000 to $325,000.

Metro vancouver home sales bounces back this January 2014 after a sluggish sales in 2013 where the sales were below 10-year average, this according to Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

Here are the 10- year average benchmark increase in January 2014

          Detached Homes  $ 929,000  up 3.2%

          Attached Homes    $ 457,700  up 1.7%

          Apartments             $ 371,500  up  3.7%

This year january, home sales reached 1,760, up by 30% from previous year of 1,351 homes.  While December, 2013 home sales was 1,953 homes, which is down still by 9.9%.