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Metro Vancouver’s real estate market has changed.
The price range for home purchases in Vancouver over the past 30 days was between $295,000 and $17 million.
Metro Vancouver’s real estate market has changed.
Interest rates are going up as the federal government seeks to control inflation, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s own policy of keeping rates low to encourage pandemic spending.
As a result, real estate prices have stalled as buyers take stock.
Here’s a look at the cheapest and most expensive Vancouver detached homes, townhomes and condos sold over the past month:
The most expensive detached home sold in the past 30 days was at 2958 West 45th Avenue in Kerrisdale for $17 million.
This 8,520 square foot house was on the market for 59 days. It was initially listed for $20.98 million, then dropped to $18.988 million.
This means the seller got 20 per cent less than what they were expecting when it first listed. The property sold on April 2, and was reported as sold on April 14.
It’s a relatively new build over an acre of land and designed by architect Howard Airey. The house has six bedrooms and almost 2,000 square feet of patio space. The home was assessed as of July 1, 2021 at $17.92 million.
The most expensive townhome sold in Vancouver in the past month sits across the road from George Wainborn Park in Yaletown in downtown Vancouver.
The townhome, at 485 Beach Crescent, is 2,600 square feet spread over three levels
It sold on April 16 for $3.499 million — which was also the asking price.
The three-bedroom listing (with 600 square feet of decks) only sat on the market for four days. The monthly maintenance fee is hefty at $1,685 a month.
It is assessed at $2.94 million.
There were more than 300 condos sold in Vancouver over the past month, including 21 worth more than $2.5 million. Of the 300, 22 were at UBC and 121 in the downtown core.
Perhaps surprisingly, the most expensive condo sold was worth more than twice the value of the most expensive townhome — at $7.2 million.
This 2,667 square foot, one-level condo sits within a 26-storey tower at 1011 Cordova Street (Fairmont Pacific Rim) in Coal Harbour.
It was listed for 55 days at $7.68 million before selling on March 31.
The condo has 360 degree views of Vancouver and access to all sorts of amenities with a monthly strata fee of $2,427.
There were 14 detached homes sold for less than $1.5 million in Vancouver over the past month.
The cheapest was at 526 East Cordova Street for $1.149 million.
This rundown 2,600 square foot home sits on a 122 foot deep and 25 foot wide lot with rezoning potential in the Downtown Eastside.
The home was built in 1910 so there might be heritage density possibilities. It looks like it was a beautiful home at one point but now appears unlivable and is alongside a chicken rendering plant.
It was assessed at $1.177 million.
The cheapest townhome sold in Vancouver over the past month was in the Killarney neighbourhood for $620,000.
This listing at 2605 East 43rd Avenue was on the market for six days. It is 579 square feet with one bedroom and a monthly strata fee of $150.
There were 42 condos sold in Vancouver over the past thirty days for less than $500,000.
The least expensive of the lot went for $295,000 in a development called Gardenia Villa on the 2400-block of East 10th Avenue.
Originally listed for $574,000, it sold on April 4 for almost 50 per cent less. Two other condos in the same development sold for around the same in the past month.
The reason is because this is a leaky condo that banks will not finance. The listing states a special levy of $226,000 will be paid in full by the seller upon completion.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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