Vancouver Home Sales in February picked up compared to the same month a year ago.  Home Sales came in 2,530, based from Real Estate Board of Vancouver.  Sales were up more than 40% from 1,797 last year and also 1760 last January.  This homebuyer demand in February is consistent witht he typical housing market as per president of the Vancouver board Sandra Wyatt.

February Sales of 2,547 were in line with Vancouver's 10 year average for this month.  The number of new listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 4700 in february compared with 4833 new listings last year, while there were 5345 new listings in January 2014.

The MLS Home Price Index composite benchmark price is up 3.2% of $609,100 from a year ago.

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%.

Home sales in Greater Vancouver surged to 71 percent last month.  There were 1,953 properties changed hands on the Multiple Listing Service, way higher from 1,142 homes sod in December 2012, according to the REBGV.  It also said to be the 8th consecutive month that Vancouver has experienced a year-over-year of gain in monthly sales following a 19-month slump before it begins to picked up last May.

Above is the list of world's unaffordable cities from Demographia's 2013 list.  Vancouver in second place, while Hong Kong is the top most unaffordable city, while London in thirteenth place.

With Canadian cities, especially Metro Vancouver becoming infamous for unaffordability in regards to real estate, some voice has been added to those asking the federal Conservative government to collect data on the influence of investors - foreign and otherwise - on the country's housing market.

Media reports also mentioning London. England has becoming badly distorted by ultra-wealthy foreign owners, referred to as "non-domiciled residents".  The influence of such buyers, including Russian tycoons, is said to be causing London's housing prices to "lose touch with reality"/

If that's what the British media are saying about London, I wondered what would they say about Vancouver, which Demographia judges the second most unaffordable city in the world next to Hong Kong....?

According to the latest housing market outlook by CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.), existing home sales are expected to rise 8% next year due to BC's pick up in economy that is associated by jobs increases in 2014.

The CMHC also reported that the demand for homes next year is expected to ride the momentum of a rebounding market and post some positive gains.  There is also an  increased demand for B.C. goods key export markets that will improve the economic prospects next year.

Housing starts will be good.  However, it wasn't expected to rise substantially in 2014.  CMHC also forecast 18,200 new housing units this year and 18,400 units in 2014.

Mortgage rates are expected to rise marginally next year, but CMHC mentioned that the suggested lending rates will remain "supportive" for the housing market given rates remain low by historical standards.  By the end of 2014, CMHC is forecasting the one-year posted mortgage rate to rise 0.25% from 2013 levels to between 3.25% and 3.75%, and the five-year posted mortgage rate to rise to between 5.25% to 6% from between 5% and 5.50% in 2013.

"Mount Pleasant community is definitely changing,  gone are the days when you are afraid of renting or buying a ground level condo especially if you are a woman, nowadays, it's more of yuppies who live in these neighborhood" these were the words I gathered from a Mount Pleasant resident.

Mount Pleasant is a hip, vibrant and awesome community, people are friendly, the community thrives to be different, either thru expression of art as seen on the streets of St George st, community gardens with a shed for art exchange, or thru the latest buildings, could be heritage or totally modern look establishments, restaurants, etc. There is a multi-culturalism that is happening and yet it complements and blends in this eclectic neighborhood.  

Mount Pleasant East stretches from Main to Clark Drive and from Great Northern Way and E2nd Avenue to e16th and Kingsway.  It used to be a working class neighborhood but has undergone gentrification.  There is a migration of people from popular areas such as Kitsilano and downtown Vancouver to this neighborhood.  Single urban young professionals, young or starter families and some retirees are what composed this community.  

The September home sales in Vancouver region were up to nearly 64% as the market posted big gains from last year's market when sales plunged due to the change in mortgage lending rules.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver also mentioned that there were 2,483 sales through it's Multiple Listing Service in September, which made up from 1,516 a year ago.

Board president Sandra Wyatt also mentioned that the sales are considerably up from last year but it's important to note that last September 2012 sales were among the lowest in three decades.  She also added that Home Sale and Listing activity this September were in line with the 10-year average for the month.

Real Estate sales in Vancouver have bounced back strong in recent months if we compare to last year when federal finance minister Jim Flaherty tightened the mortgage lending rules.  The move by the minister sent the sales down to Canadian real estate last year, however, the sales have since picked up again in many areas.

According to BCREA ( British Columbia Real Estate Association, the residential housing sales in B.C. were up by 28.6% in August.  The Multiple Listing Service showed there were 6,863 residential homes sales happened last month in B.C. which came to a total of $3.66 billion.  This is an increase of 39.7% from August of 2012 sales in dollar term.

Chief economist Cameron Muir noted that during 2012, a lot of home buyers stayed on the sidelines for almost the whole year due to fear of a housing market hard landing, but this year, it's the sense of urgency to lock in a mortgage at a low interest rate that cause a good summer home activity.

BCREA predicted that although mortgage is anticipated to rise, the impact on home sales will offset by the stronger economic conditions and the employment growth.