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Residents of Ontario and B.C. are unsure about how the harmonized sales tax (HST) affects real estate transactions, a new study finds, and the confusion is being blamed for a slide in home sales.

Home sales in Toronto fell 34 per cent in July, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board.

TREB reported that there were 6,564 sales last month, down from 9,967 in the same month in 2009. Home sales were at the lowest level since 2002.

“The level of July sales remained below the expected long-term trend. The market has become more balanced following record monthly sales through most of the winter and early spring,” said board president Bill Johnston, in a release…

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Date: August 5th, 2010
Published by: CBC News

Real estate sales in the Lower Mainland plummeted in July, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

A total of 2,255 homes were sold in the region in July 2010, a 45.2 per cent drop from the 4,114 homes sales in July 2009 — the highest selling July ever recorded.

Sales in July 2010 were also 24 per cent lower than the previous month’s sales.

“I think a lot of people were anticipating that mortgage rates were going to be moving higher, as the Bank of Canada has signaled over the last few months,” said Robyn Adamache, a market analyst with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

“So what happened was perhaps some sales were pushed earlier in the year than they might have otherwise been, so we had a relatively active beginning to the year and things are sort of normalizing now.”

Adamache said there’s also been decline in home listings…

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Date: August 5, 2010
Published by: CBC News

Real estate markets have slowed a bit more than the B.C. Real Estate Association’s earlier predictions, prompting a downward revision in the group’s latest market forecast that includes a softening of prices.

Association chief economist Cameron Muir released his third-quarter forecast Friday, calling for Multiple Listing Service recorded sales to dip to 79,500 by the end of the year, a seven-per-cent decline from 2009.

In the association’s second-quarter forecast, Muir had predicted British Columbia’s MLS sales would fall three per cent from the 85,028 recorded in 2009.

“We’ve seen consumer demand has tailed off in the summer months a little more than what was expected, and that accounts for the change in the overall unit-sales numbers,” Muir said in an interview…

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Posted by: Derrick Penner
Date: July 31st, 2010

Chinese interest in Vancouver-area real estate is so strong that it’s fuelling a market for real estate tourism, with groups of wealthy travellers scheduling visits to the city for the sole purpose of house hunting.

China-based Internet sales company SouFun is organizing two tours — groups of about 20 each from Beijing and Shanghai — which will visit Vancouver and Toronto in August on the hunt for “million-dollar or multimillion-dollar” listings.

First reported in Vancouver’s Ming Pao Daily News, and repeated on the news blog Chinese in Vancouver, a SouFun spokesman said potential buyers are particularly drawn to neighbourhoods with “famous” schools or ocean views.

Ming Pao reporter Eric Chan said SouFun drew a lot of participation for the tours from areas around Shanghai…

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Posted by: Derek Penner
Date: June 29, 2010

Vancouver has beautiful scenery and attracts lots of visitors all over the world each year. Now it seems like the goal of some tourists isn’t to visit popular destinations around the city but to scout for housing deals.

VANCOUVER — Chinese interest in Vancouver-area real estate is so strong that it’s fuelling a market for real estate tourism, with groups of wealthy travellers scheduling visits to the city for the sole purpose of house hunting.

China-based Internet sales company SouFun is organizing two tours — groups of about 20 each from Beijing and Shanghai — which will visit Vancouver and Toronto in August on the hunt for “million-dollar or multi-million-dollar” listings.

First reported in Vancouver’s Ming Pao Daily News, and repeated on the news blog Chinese in Vancouver, a SouFun spokesman said potential buyers are particularly drawn to neighbourhoods with “famous” schools or ocean views.

Ming Pao reporter Eric Chan said SouFun drew a lot of participation for the tours from areas around Shanghai…

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Posted by Derek Penner
Date: June 28, 2010

Inventory rose 19 per cent in May, B.C. Real Estate Association reports

The number of B.C. home sales is forecast to drop this year even as housing prices for the year are expected to rise from 2009, said a new report.

Average home prices are anticipated to climb by six per cent this year over last, to $494,600, said Cameron Muir, B.C. Real Estate Association chief economist, said in his housing forecast released yesterday.

“That really represents the price increases that have already happened.” Prices reflect sales of all types of homes sold through the multiple listing service.

“We are looking at quite stable pricing going forward,” Muir said from Vancouver.

Next year will see average prices for homes rise by one per cent to $499,700, he said…

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Posted by: By Carla Wilson, Times Colonist June 8, 2010
Date: June 8, 2010

Vancouver has the largest year-over-year new housing price increase in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.

The national statistical agency released its new housing price index for the month of April this morning, which showed a 0.3% average increase across Canada and was identical to March’s increase.

The index evaluates changes in the sale prices of new homes agreed upon between the contractor and buyer, and the prices collected from builders don’t include value added taxes such as the GST or HST.

Vancouver’s year-over-year price increase was 6%.

That increase matches April’s 21% jump in B.C. residential home sales when compared with the same month in 2009, according to the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA)…

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Posted by: BIV Business Today
Date: June 10, 2010