REAL ESTATE NEWS

When the COVID-19 real estate boom started, multiple offers and over-asking sale prices were mostly happening for detached homes in the $1.5 million to $2 million range in parts of East Vancouver and North Vancouver, and lower-prices houses in the Fraser Valley.
Now, there are signs of this moving into more expensive housing. In particular, there were two eye-popping sales in mid-February, one that went for over $700,000 the asking price, and the other for more than $1.6 million higher than the asking price. ...

BMO Economics says demand for housing in Canada is “piping hot”.
The bank released a report Tuesday (February 16) describing sales across the country as one marked by “hot hot heat”.
As Robert Kavcic, a senior economist and director of economics with BMO, put it: “The Canadian housing market is fully boiling.”
According to Kavcic, new listings fell 13.3 percent in January across the country. ...

A recently released report confirms homeownership remains a distant dream for many living in one of Canada's priciest markets.
The latest Housing Affordability Monitor, a report issued by the National Bank of Canada, estimated just how much a perspective homebuyer would need to earn to be able to afford the typical home currently on the market in the Metro Vancouver area.
The report looks to benchmarks, a metric different than averages, as an indicator for how much a would-be buyer can expect to pay.
The bank estimates the price of the representative condo in the Vancouver area – meaning a condo that is typical of what's been available recently – at $633,030. ...

COVID-19 doesn't affect all people equally — and it doesn't affect the housing market equally either.
The average selling price of a detached home in Greater Vancouver rose for the sixth straight month in January, the first time that had happened since 2013.
At $1.83 million it's the third highest monthly figure in the history of the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board. To the east, the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board saw a 23 per cent increase in the average value of a detached home in the last year, and is now at $1.28 million, its highest number ever. ...