i heard the same thing a few years ago Mike = a few realtors 'quit" publically and one moved to PEI cos the market was going to fall...

didn't happen

I see the one who moved to PEI has come back now, tail between legs, being very quiet..

Of course house prices only ever rise, its a big bubble and they always pop.

whatever mike.

no one knows what is going to happen, even and including realtors. Maybe it'll drop, maybe it' wont. I've seen people burned by waiting too long, and I've also got friends who are in negative equity in the US. Who knows.

It reminds me of someone I met in 2001 and still see now and again at social gatherings. At the time he was renting a home in South Surrey. He said he didn't want to buy because he thought the market was overpriced and he was waiting for it to cool off. To be fair to him prices had been increasing steadily for two years.

He is still renting and paying $4,000 a month. If he had bought a similar house back then he would have being paying about $2,000 a month in mortgage and property tax. By now he would have paid a chunk off his mortgage and, even if the market crashed by 50% tomorrow, the house would still be worth more than he paid for it.

I agree there is no law that says house prices must go up, the only law is of supply and demand. With the US economy starting to recover the BC economy is expected to grow strongly in 2014. There are still lots of people who want to move to south west BC and they are not making any new land. If I owned a multi-million dollar house on the Westside I would be concerned. However, I just don't see a significant long-term fall in demand for the kind of homes ordinary people buy and live in.

we have friends like that too. They were convinced of the crash back in '03, and they are still renting.

Top earning realtor ... Lean years ... Seems an oxymoron to me ... It's be rising since we arrived in 08 and I can't see any reason for it to crash ATM .

Matter of time have listened to comments similar to those above before every housing crash in the UK

Moreover, average house prices are now 12 times personal disposable income, way above historical averages. This ratio reached 9.7 times in the last housing bubble in the late 1980s. As a result, household debt as a per cent of disposable income has risen to over 153 per cent in Canada, reaching record levels and coming close to the levels that the U.S. reached before the housing crash.

In economics, it all comes down to demand vs. supply. Canada has a significant excess supply of housing that sooner or later will have to be reflected in lower prices. Toronto, for example, is at the top of the world when it comes to the number of condo buildings under construction.
Canada’s high house prices in relation to incomes, combined with record household debt levels and overinvestment in residential construction, combined with a slowdown in demand, will cause a severe correction in the real estate market. This time it is not different. It never is.

Source
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...article549440/

It's a good article. I think the relatively unique factor in Canada's hot housing markets (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto) is the constant stream of foreign money underpinning demand. Both as investment from overseas and as a result of immigration. Canada is a safe haven politically as well as economically so as long as the condo market continues to attract investment the housing market should avoid a crash. IMO. As ExKiwi says, no one actually knows! Especially the realtors, they're the last ones to know.

Indeed .. But demand exceeds supply here And we don't have the excess land or physical space within the GVA to build on ..condo heights are also restricted within COV. Plus the money from Asia keeps jacking up prices for those properties that are available .. When people come in as cash buyers and offer eel over listing price.

from my realtor friend i hear it's still mulitple offers on houses in East Van.

Yup .. Still getting regular approaches (?) from realtors and just notes in door from people wanting to buy in area.

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2013/09/5...e-transaction/

$55 million for a condo !

The buyer should have used his/her money to buy something more impressive...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24271487

It's not very probable that the buyer paid in cash, as claimed, though it is an amusing image.

Yeah.. They should have had a pic with all the wonga! I suppose a wire transfer of full amount .. No mortgage..Counts as a cash sale?