There are many theories floating around in the media, be it social or conventional about what’s right and wrong with the current real estate market.
How about a few “facts?”
According to economist and real-estate analysts who track these things:
• The average price of a home in British Columbia is currently $913,471, or $226,821 above the national average (Ontario is at $887,290).
• Over the last two decades, housing prices have increased 375 per cent nation-wide, and 490 per cent in Vancouver.
• Canada’s rate of housing price increase exceeds that of any other developed market in the world.
• While disposable income is up more than 50 per cent since the turn of the century, house prices are up more than 250 per cent during the same period.
• More than 10 per cent of Canada’s GDP comes from residential real estate and connected activities, such as assorted costs and fees, and renovations.
• Recent activity has given rise to the term “shelter inflation” which loosely means “treating home purchases as investment rather than consumption” by estimating what owned property could collect based on similar measured properties — the cost of “shelter.”
Now you have some facts to use for your own analysis.