Vancouver Real Estate Sales Surge Ahead of Winter Olympics
(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 in British Columbia, the highest volume for the month since 2005, according to the British Columbia Real Estate Association. And it wasn’t spurred by foreclosures and short sales; the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s housing price index for the area jumped 16.2 percent to $562,463, from a year earlier.
“We’ve seen a dramatic rebound in home sales,” said Cameron Muir, chief economist for the BCREA. Home prices have been on an uptrend for several months, “scratching record levels,” Muir says.
A few weeks ago, in a throwback to the old days, 20 buyers camped out over night in the cold to buy units in a Vancouver development called the Mark, a tower in the trendy neighborhood of Yaletown. In one day 163 of the 214 available condos sold, with units ranging from 460- to 730-square-feet priced between $320,900 and $660,900. (All figures in Canadian dollars; the current exchange rate is $1USD=$1.03CAD.)
Full article at NuWire Investment
