The Key

What a difference a year makes.

Last year at this time, the Metro Vancouver housing market was just beginning to emerge from one of the biggest slowdowns in years.

This February when the city was hosting the Winter Olympics, home sales in the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver were up 67.1 percent over February 2009.

Sales down from two years ago, BUT up from last month

(Metro Vancouver's hot real estate market as seen from the view of V6A; V6A is at 221 Union)

Real estate industry forced to loosen rules....

The Competition Bureau's move to force the real estate industry to loosen its rules governing the multiple listing service will not bring to Canada the huge range of house-hunting tools available in the United States.

That's because the bureau's ac ...

From the street to the mountain.....

Google Street View has upped the interest factor by adding a new component, just in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Filmed on a bobsled with a camera in hand, Google has moved their street view concept on to the ski slopes by showing off ski runs in Whistler, Cyprus and Grouse. Viewers will now be able to experience, up close and personal, all of the ...

Vancouver, from the day the first train pulled in, has always done well by gatherings of outsiders

The past, however, suggests Vancouver real estate is simultaneously exceptional and unexceptional.

Advances and retreats in ...

(The Mark is situated in the trendy Yaletown district of Vancouver)

All eyes will be on North America's hottest property markets

When the Olympic flame enters BC Place Stadium on Feb. 12, the world's spotlight will fall on one of North America's hottest property markets.

November saw the highest volume of sales in Vancouver since 2005

In November more than 7,721 properties were sold ...

"Vancouver City" music video is an artistic collaboration between Innerlife Project and TimeLapseHD. Linda Ganzini's beautiful and haunting vocals blend with the unique musical style of Serge Chubinski-Orlov who produced and wrote Vancouver City.

For more information and music downloads go to Inner Life Project

Vancouver's the top economic performer among Canadian cities this year

The Olympic effect will give Vancouver's economy enough of a boost to make it the top economic performer among Canadian cities this year, according to a report Wednesday by the Conference Board of Canada.

The Conference Board forecast that Canada's third-largest city will see economic growth leap by 4.5 per cent this ...

Developers are moving ahead from a dismal 2009, with CMHC forecasting 13,000 starts this year

The Onni Group kicked off 2010 by launching three new suburban highrise condominium projects, Polygon Homes laid out a plan to increase its construction by 20 per cent, and across the industry builders are ramping up activity.

Canada Mortgage and Housing's forecast is for 13,000 starts this ye ...

Housing prices have generally stayed the same with or without an Olympic Games

Cities that win Olympic bids experience neither boom nor bust in their real estate prices, but gain construction jobs as they prepare for the Games, according to researchers at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.

The UBC study is the first to use real estate variables to te ...

Investors park cash in Canada

Foreign investors looking for global real estate investments have ranked Canada among the top three countries to park their money.

The U.S. and Germany were in 1st and 2nd place, but Canada ranked 3rd in the survey for providing the most "stable and secure" investment by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) released Monday.

Full ar ...