Real Estate News & Articles

Median home prices fall 9% in third quarter

2008-11-18

Alan Zibel USA Today WASHINGTON — Home prices fell in a record four out of five cities in the third quarter as low-cost foreclosures flooded the market and the decline spread through the country. Of 152 metropolitan areas in the Natio…

Bad investments hurt condo owners

2008-11-17

Strata councils fall prey to promises of high returns on risky deals Lena Sin Province Tony Gioventu of the Condominium Home Owners Association warns that condo owners hurt by bad investments can sue their strata council or they may have to…

B.C.'s Rental Assistance Program allows famiy to have a stable home life

2008-11-17

YWCA Vancouver partners with Province to help low-income families Province Download Document

Bank pulls funding on luxury Jameson House condo project

2008-11-16

$180-million downtown Vancouver tower featured conveyor belt to park resident's vehicles Susan Lazaruk Province A room with a simulated view in Jameson House's presentation centre. Photograph by : Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province A splashy j…

House prices take nosedive

2008-11-16

Further sales declines expected in months ahead Eric Beauchesne Province Housing prices in this Toronto neighbourhood, and across Canada, have plunged. OTTAWA -- The Canadian economy has taken a sudden turn for the worse, with the housing b…

A rush request may have sent your sale fee soaring

2008-11-16

Tony Gioventu Province Dear Condo Smarts: We just closed the sale of our retirement condo in Kelowna and were appalled to be hit with over $450 in fees for documents from the strata corporation. I used a real estate agent and lawyer that ad…

Oct 2008 sales down 51% from Oct 2007, Avg Prices down 6.5%

2008-11-15

Number of sold homes drops by more than half compared to 2007 Derrick Penner Sun SALES SLIDE: The B.C. Real Estate Association reported October sales at about half the level of a year ago, a drop that can be correlated with recent dismal fi…

Stockings await latest in electronics gadgets

2008-11-15

Gillian Shaw Sun MPp3, XM Canada Nokia N85 iHearSafe headphones, iHearSafe, LLC 1 MPp3, XM Canada, $279 Cdn plus $14.99 for XM Canada subscription Get your portable XM satellite radio and Mp3 player here - an all-in-one that gives you satel…

Incentives needed to spark rental growth

2008-11-15

Purpose- built rental housing can BOB RANSFORD Sun There has been a lot of h o l l o w t a l k a b o u t housing affordability during the campaign leading up to today’s civic election, but very little discussion about specific initiat…

Real estate: Where to buy now

2008-11-15

Duncan Hood Other Real estate agents like to tell you that what matters is location, location, location. They're partly right. But what also matters is timing, timing, timing. Every city moves to its own economic rhythms. Smart real estate …

B.C. residential sales volume plummets

2008-11-14

Dollar volume in October down 54 per cent from a year ago Sun VANCOUVER – The British Columbia Real Estate Association is reporting that residential sales dollar volume on the Multiple Listing... VANCOUVER - The British Columbia Real …

FDIC proposes to modify 2.2M mortgages to fight foreclosure

2008-11-14

Alan Zibel USA Today A foreclosure sign in front of a home in Perris, Calif., in May --- By Mark Avery, Reuters file WASHINGTON — Publicly breaking with the Bush administration's official stance, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. pr…

It's picnic time for carnivores

2008-11-13

Steak that's top notch and perfectly cooked to order Mark Laba Province Stoked for steak? Try Pinky's Steakhouse. Photograph by : Jon Murray, The Province PINKY'S STEAKHOUSE Where: 1873 West 4th Ave. Payment/reservations: Major credit cards…

Billions to be added to mortgage markets

2008-11-13

Eric Beauchesne Sun OTTAWA - The federal government and Bank of Canada have dramatically stepped up their efforts to manage the financial market crisis with promises of further multibillion-dollar injections of liquidity into domestic mortg…

New Vesper, shaken not stirred

2008-11-13

Cocktail from the novel Casino Royale revived just in time for film Sun Chad Gaskell of NU has updated the Vesper, James Bond's original cocktail from Casino Royale. Photograph by : Jenelle Schneider, Vancouver Sun NU RESTAURANT + LOUNGE Wh…

October foreclosures up 25% from a year ago, study says

2008-11-13

USA Today NEW YORK (Reuters) — Foreclosure activity in October rose 25% from a year earlier, although filings in California fell by double-digit percentage points for the second consecutive month due to a state law slowing the foreclo…

Taking the Mystery Out of Owning Property in Mexico

2008-11-13

Plan Now For Your Upcoming Closing Other The final step to complete your transaction is the closing process. There are still a few items which have to be completed and as we get closer to the end of the year, deadlines become critical. Once…

Bid to stem U.S. homeowners' tide of defaults

2008-11-12

Patrick Rucker, Reuters Province WASHINGTON -- The regulator for the two largest U.S. mortgage finance companies yesterday unveiled a plan to cut monthly payments for struggling homeowners in an effort to reverse a wave of defaults threaten…

Hong Kong real estate plunges

2008-11-12

Buyers are 'juggling with knives and razor blades' David Watkins, Agence France-Press Province A Hong Kong real-estate office window promises price cuts. HONG KONG -- Window displays at the Hong Kong real-estate office where Stephen Poon wo…

Gadgets aim to light up lives of couch potatoes everywhere

2008-11-12

MARC SALTZMAN Province get good vibrations from the DBox roll with the punches in the Renegade chair Prevent crow’s feet with the Vuzix iwear It’s not enough that today’s home theatres include a huge high-definition displa…

Bigger is not always better for HDTV

2008-11-12

Better to pick a size that you will be comfortable with Marc Saltzman Sun Samsung LN40A750 "Bigger is better" is a common mantra in the HDTV world but your eyes and your wallet might lead you to a different conclusion before you make that d…

Property assessment freeze a silly idea that should be dropped

2008-11-12

Sun The province's plan to freeze property value assessments is sowing confusion while offering few benefits. The plan announced recently by Premier Gordon Campbell at the annual Liberal convention in Whistler has been widely misinterpreted…

Metro Vancouver's housing market will bounce back

2008-11-12

yes, it will; Balanced market will let more buyers in Peter Simpson Sun President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his 1933 inaugural address, told a financially downtrodden America : "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fe…

Depreciation of city condos expected to exceed that of suburban houses

2008-11-12

Brian Morton Sun BMO's Robert Kavcic says multiple-unit construction has yet 'drop back to more sustainable levels.' Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun, Files Condo owners in downtown Vancouver are at greater risk for price depreciati…