Metro Vancouver home equity takes a huge hit

The decline of the Lower Mainland's real estate market continued in October with the fall in prices erasing any equity gains homeowners saw in the first part of 2008, the region's real estate boards reported Monday.

Battered consumer confidence, despite B.C.'s better-than-average economic performance, kept buyers on the sidelines with the Greater Vancouver region recording less than half the number of Multiple-Listing-Service sales and the Fraser Valley experiencing an almost 50-per-cent decline from October 2007 sales levels.

"It's not like the market has disappeared and people aren't buying," Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban economics and real estate at the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C., said in an interview.

Real estate prices lurch down further

Home prices in Metro Vancouver headed in the same direction as the stock markets in November: down.

Real estate prices lurched down another four to five per cent last month, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

The benchmark prices of a single detached house is now down 13.6 per cent since May to $666,500.

In the Fraser Valley, real estate is off six to seven per cent since May.

Detached houses in the Fraser Valley area were the one property type where median selling prices actually rose – 3.4 per cent – in November.

CENTURY 21 Canada Launches Full-Screen Property Photos

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - CENTURY 21 Canada has released a new enhancement to its real estate website that allows visitors to view full-screen photos of listed homes. The feature, called Showcase21, provides fast and easy access to large, clear photos of properties.

CENTURY 21 Canada President, Don Lawby, explains how this enhancement will benefit prospective homebuyers. "The most common thing visitors to Century21.ca do is view property photos. This new feature will improve our clients' experience in screening and reviewing prospective homes. Now more than ever, we believe we have the best real estate website in the world when measured by quantity and quality of photos per listing."

800 homes sold in Greater Vancouver last month.

The global financial crisis is letting the air out of Burnaby's housing market.

Figures released by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver recently show Burnaby home prices are down from last year, with single-family homes seeing the biggest losses.

In November, the typical detached house in Burnaby sold for $654,790, down 11.2 per cent from November 2007.