Canadian home resale prices rise to record in May

For those of us home owners who have been watching with angst as home prices south of the border have collapsed precipitously, there is some welcome news: resale prices for Canadian homes rose to their highest average on record in May. This is in the context the fourth straight month of increases in sales activity, and improving consumer confidence.

This is particularly good news for those of us on the West Coast, where we’ve seen the greatest gain. Interestingly, these gains in the West, where there are some of the nation’s most expensive markets, are skewing the national average price. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the average home price has recovered 16.4 percent from the lows reached in January.

Of course, this is terrible news for first-time home buyers, especially in British Columbia where we “enjoy” the country’s most expensive residential real estate. The effect of this is partially offset by the lowest mortgage rates in decades.

This is the first year-over-year increase since May 2008.

Home sales rose 8 percent to 37,649 units in May from April, the fourth consecutive monthly increase on a seasonally adjusted basis.

As Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, point out: “In the short space of about 18 months, the housing market has gone full circle from a sellers’ market, to a flat-out buyers’ market, and back to a sellers’ market.”

Summit found and it is Whistler

Vancouver boasts that it has it all, and many who live here on a sunny day like today will agree:

The outward-bound nature of the place is happily countered by a laid-back vibe — this is the West Coast after all — where pockets of hippie counterculture exists with counterculture of the consumer variety.

Jen looking out over Vancouver from Seymour Mountain

With all the tension and negative press regarding gang violence, isn’t nice to stop for a moment and realize that we still live an enviable life in one of the world’s most remarkable settings?

Read CNN’s take on Vancouver here

Here at Seek the Summit, we’re all about celebrating the amazing outdoors British Columbia has to offer. But living next to nature means being aware that there are dangers inherent in outdoor sports.
Pretty logical. So, in the vein of “cautionary tale”, I give you the following (Note, the snowmobiler here did manage to get away from this avalanche safely.)

Check it out: Blackberry App World doesn’t support the Firefox browser. Instead, they’d like me to go over to IE… Are they kidding?

Notice

This web page uses ActiveX controls that work only in Microsoft Internet Explorer. To ensure that BlackBerry App World is correctly downloaded to your BlackBerry, this site is not designed to work with any other Internet browsers. If you cannot use Internet Explorer, you may be able to download the software directly to your BlackBerry smartphone.

I need to expound upon this topic in much greater detail, but this is a very good start:

Thanks to Baba Brinkman, a Vancouver rap artist, for the above.

Sometimes, when I’m at work and looking at my portfolio, I think of my wife and how much I enjoy seeing her smile. And it makes me think of her in Paris, how right she seems in the City of Lights.  So, even though I planned on making a post about the TSX closing its best monthly gain since 2001 (let’s not – please – discuss year to date), I’ve decided instead to share this picture of Jennifer in Paris. This was a very good day, we were on our way to the Louvre.

Top Producer’s new real estate software newsletter is live and ready for prime time. For the sake of simplicity we’re using Wordpress to present content.

See it here:

Apparently I like to cheers the camera. Well, suppose it’s usually my wife. Cheers just seems to capture the moment so well.

So, here goes:
Cin Cin

Happy blog-versary to my wife at Champagne Wednesday, who just celebrated a year of blogging.

Great work. Your words inspire me.