Another summer was unofficially ushered in this past weekend with the opening of the Kitsilano and Trout Lake Farmers’ Markets. Supporters of local food braved ominous-looking skies to get their pick...
Rich super PAC donors have a giant influence in the 2012 presidential race. Republican candidate Newt Gingrich, for example, may be irrelevant were it not for billionaire Sheldon Adelman.
"There's not a country on Earth that wouldn't want to trade places with us," US President Barack Obama said in his weekly weekly radio address on Saturday. Actually, there probably are -- about...
Billionaire investor Warren Buffet’s searing commentary, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,” in the New York Times yesterday has unleashed a tidal wave of interest around the world: people were...
Glenn Beck's investment tip to buy gold turned out to be eerily accurate following the stock crash on Monday: as U.S. stocks flounder, gold rose to a record high, and appears to be the most coveted...
After the massive crash of U.S. stocks on Monday, gold is trading higher than ever, finishing at $1,782.50. The Dow Jones made a slight recovery after falling 634.76 points on Monday, but...
The recent downturn in US and global stock markets has Canadian economists worried. This recent economic crisis, which originally ensued from the US losing its AAA credit rating from S&P, raises...
Statistics Canada released its quarterly jobs report today. The underlying story is one of overall weakness in Canada's labour force. The unemployment rate fell three-tenths of a point to 7.6 per...
When Phoebe Jiang found herself losing track of the group discounts offered by sites like GroupOn and ethicalDeal, she and three friends came up with an idea. Their concept was simple, their plan...
Creating a financially secure future can be a daunting prospect, particularly in the midst of a recession. But adopting an avoidance strategy for retirement savings is hardly a money-savvy move. No...
Yesterday, I asked how the Bank of Canada's decision to raise interest rates would affect student loans. Terry Wong, Vice President, Treasury and FX, at Vancity Group was able to provide ...
The Bank of Canada increased its interest rate by one-quarter of a percentage point to 1 per cent today, but indicated that the rate would not be raised again without clear signs of economic...
O.b. tampons have been slowly disappearing from the shelves of local stores in Vancouver since last November. And although manufacturer Johnson & Johnson promised that they would be back in the...
What do you have in common with Madonna, Martha Stewart and Oprah? While you may not be famous like these women, studies show that both you and Oprah are managing your own financial well-being...
Cori Maedel always knew that one day she would start her own business. The question, in her mind, wasn't if, but when. As the daughter of two entrepreneurs, Maedel had big dreams and big ideas, but...
Give your real estate agent a treatGolden Retrievers are intelligent, friendly, and capable dogs. Therefore it stands to reason that you would want to include one in your real estate business. As the...
UBC marketing professor Darren Dahl spoke for many a Vancouverite when he said, "When you think of Vancouver, you don't think about Donald Trump in any way, to be honest."
The BC luxury home market stumbled in 2012 as sales of high-end homes fell 36 per cent from their peak in 2011. However, even with the drop, 2012 was still the second best year in history for sales...
Recently @DouglasCoupland quipped on Twitter that 2013 was a very bad name for a year, so he was going to rename it Tammy. "Tammy" sounds like a hurricane name, if you ask me. But then...
Gradual price drops in BC are a great thing: one realtor's plain-spoken analysis on why Vancouverites don't have to worry about the drop in home prices.
Over the past six months, the Greater Vancouver housing market has seen a reduction in the number of homes listed for sale, a gradual moderation in home prices and a decrease in property sales...
The summer of 2012 drew to a close in September with home sale activity well below historical averages in the Greater Vancouver housing market. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV)...
After a five-day holiday in The City during, yes, a gloomy ‘Fog-ust’, I came away deliriously stoked about all of the things San Francisco offers that, well, Vancouver does not. Like surfing in the...
A VO reader pointed out some inaccuracies in yesterday’s story about my re-posting of the Globe & Maiil story on CMHC’s ‘Emili’ program. The thrust of the Globe’s investigation is that the...
When we purchased a house in Kelowna a few years ago, I was amazed at the lightning speed with which banks would extend my line of credit. True, the provincially assessed value of the house did...
The press is all over the fact that the housing market is cooling. September sales were down and the listings were up. The telltale sign of a buyer's market coming in. Hold the Kleenex––this is a...
When the Guinness family built the Lions Gate Bridge to connect their British Properties in West Vancouver with downtown at the height of the Great Depression, it was almost an act of desperation....
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial institutions (OSFI) has reversed its proposed amendment to require borrowers to re-qualify for their mortgages at renewal. This decision is welcome...
Recently, the government introduced HST easing measures aimed at transitioning the HST to the GST/PST. One of those initiatives is a rebate of up to $42,000 if you buy a secondary piece of real...
Canada's housing markets are forecast to remain steady for another two years, according to a new report released on Monday. The national housing agency, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (...
Real estate prices in Vancouver are sky-high, but that doesn't mean home ownership is out of reach. With some creativity, people can own a home without going to the suburbs.
2011 has been the tale of two real estate markets, as mainland Chinese buyers influence some areas and asset classes while ignoring others altogether. The biggest beneficiaries of the influx of...
With the problems in the US and Europe and the resulting economic turmoil, it is hard not to think of how these factors influence our housing market. And while it's true that consumer...
Royal LePage released a study today showing how Canadian home prices remained high, with Vancouver homes nearly triple the national average. As outlined in a previous article, Asian investors were a...
"Hello, how's it going? Welcome on board, my name is Tyler. Should be a good trip," said the young pilot in the spiffy Harbour Air Seaplanes pilot uniform, black cap and ...
Trish Rhéaume was visibly moved when Jimmy Carter handed her the key to her new home. Rhéaume, a single mother of a 16-year- old daughter, was one of six families who were housed by Habitat for...
Non-residential construction continued to lead the way in B.C. with 54 per cent growth in February 2011, according to building permit numbers released today by Statistics Canada. “Construction...
Amidst speculation in the Vancouver market, BOSA Properties’ newest, largest and "most luxurious" tower in Burnaby, Sovereign sold out minutes after the properties were released for pre-sale last...
"Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!" joked Bob Rennie, Principal of Rennie Marketing Systems, in a press release sent out by his communications director, Lesli Boldt. "I think we can start saying our...
Most of us have thought about it. Debated it, chewed at the idea and maybe even screamed it out loud. It. That moment, when, stuck in traffic, backlogged for miles with no end in sight,...
The athlete’s village Millennium Water project is open for public consumption. Touted by Rennie Marketing as the greenest neighborhood on the planet and the last waterfront community in...
December 2009 in Vanouver Real Estate Wow. 2009 ended much differently than it began in Vancouver real estate. We started the year with one of the worst months ever recorded (January 2009) and then...
What a month we had in November. Traditionally, November is when the market slows as we approach the holidays. While this month was no exception (we saw month to month declines in comparison to...
So far, 2009 has been an extraordinary year for Vancouver real estate. Well, at least it's been good for those of us that own real estate. For those of us that were sitting on the sidelines hoping...
Everyone in Vancouver is by now aware that the real estate market has bounced back. We can see it in the hard, cold numbers produced by the REBGV every month. Prices are up, sales are up and...
October 2009 ended up being another stellar month in Vancouver real estate. We've been spoiled this year and grown accustomed to seeing strong results month after month. October 2009 was a...
I was excited to learn that Google recently announced that they had refined their real estate search. Google has brought so many productive tools and incredible innovation to the internet. However,...
Condos have become an extremely popular housing option in the Vancouver real estate market. While increasingly popular, purchasing condominiums is still something that is foreign to many people buying
What affect will hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics have on the City of Vancouver? That's a question that many of us are asking ourselves. Billions of dollars are being spent on a two week event that...
"Is now the right time to buy?" "What direction is the market heading in?" I hear questions like these every day. Everyone wants to know my opinion on what the future holds for Vancouver real estate...
The Woodward's building opened last week as buyers began taking possession of their units in the first tower (W43). There is still one more tower to be completed (W32) as well as the commercial space...
This is the first post from a new blog by Sebastian Albrecht entitled "Real Estate" which will be featured in the City section on our new site. by Sebastian Albrecht The Vancouver real estate market...
