Province
The buzz leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics will continue to drive up housing prices in Vancouver next year, Royal LePage said yesterday in a new market survey.
The average price for a city home next year will hit $587,500 — up four per cent from $565,000 in 2007, says the company’s 2008 market-survey forecast.
But the number of units sold in 2008 will fall 4.5 per cent to 37,000 units, it says.
“The combination of moderate interest rates and the strength of the western Canadian economy has Vancouver‘s real-estate market poised for a golden year ahead,” said Bill Binnie, president, Royal LePage Northshore in North Vancouver.
“Vancouver is a favoured place to move to right now and that will keep house prices rising — a trend expected only to intensify as we inch closer to the Olympics.” The survey predicts that first-time buyers will be the most-active group of purchasers, with professional single women being a particularly active subset within that group.
Overall, the region will continue to be a seller’s market, with “high buyer demand across all housing types . . . Interest in the nearby suburbs that have good transportation will continue to prosper next year,” said Binnie,
“The vastly improved highway to Squamish and the new rapid transit into Richmond are prime examples. The further away you go from the city centre, the more affordable prices become.”
Canadawide, the pace of residential real-estate market growth will slow next year. Royal LePage predicts the average sale price of a home in Canada will rise 3.5 per cent to $317,288 next year from $306,500.
