The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has just released the statistics from November. November this year was significantly busier than last year with 2,883 units sold in 2007, an increase of 22.2 per cent compared to 2,358 sales in November 2006 . Of course last year was horrendous for the weather and I really think that had significant impact on the activity.

“The housing market continues to be strong,” says REBGV president Brian Naphtali. “November figures show strong growth compared to last year, are basically on par with figures from 2005, and are 16 per cent higher than the same period in 2004.

“Affordability is a key question,” Naphtali says. “Our data indicates that about 60 per cent of residential homes purchased in November were multi-family, which includes condos and townhomes. The benchmark price for a condo in Greater Vancouver is about $375,000. However, there are units available for considerably less than this price. For example, the benchmark for condos in Port Coquitlam in November was $243,624; in Maple Ridge, $254,703; and in Coquitlam, $283,830.”

Matthew Collinge: www.604homes.com - Royal LePage Westside