Property assessments across the province continue to climb with new data revealing a nearly 22% increase since a year ago.

The vast majority of B.C.’s total real estate value of $2.44 trillion is housed in the Lower Mainland, according to information posted Tuesday to B.C. Assessment’s website.

The province’s most densely populated region accounts for $1.75 trillion of that value. More than $23.7 billion of the Lower Mainland’s updated assessments is from new construction, subdivisions and the rezoning of properties.

“The widely reported heighted demand among homebuyers during the COVID-19 pandemic is reflected in the upward movement of property values across the province including 10-30% increases throughout the Lower Mainland,” B.C. Assessment deputy assessor Bryan Murao said in a statement.

“City of Vancouver condos, however, are on the lower end of the changes, generally with single-digit increases, whereas homes in the Fraser Valley suburbs are changing higher compared to most of Metro Vancouver.”

Part of this trend could be tied to more of the labour force shifting to remote working, meaning fewer buyers are putting a premium on living closer to downtown Vancouver…read more.

Canadian real estate prices are seeing the rate of growth accelerate once again. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) Home Price Index (HPI) shows prices surged in November. Even as the inventory squeeze eased a little, buyers bid up home prices at an even faster rate. Annual home price growth is at a record high, and it’s been accelerating.

Canadian Real Estate Prices Hit A Record High

The price of a typical, or benchmark, home across Canada has never been higher. The record composite price was $780,400 in November, an increase of 2.35% ($17,900) from the previous month. Annual growth hit a rate of 25.31% ($157,600) as well. Once again, this is a record for prices. A typical home across Canada jumping $17,900 in a month is hard to believe, but it happened. Again. Did we mention this is across Canada?

Canadian Home Prices Have Never Seen Faster Growth And It’s Accelerating

The prices aren’t the only record being set, but growth is also moving at the fastest rates in history. The monthly increase is the largest since April. Annual growth at 25.31% means a new record high for the CREA composite benchmark. Price growth hasn’t eased, it’s actually accelerating as moral hazard sets in.

Canada Housing Inventory Is In A Squeeze As Demand Gets A Boost From Monetary Policy

If you heard home prices are rising due to a lack of inventory, you heard correctly. Well, sort of. Seasonally adjusted existing-home sales reached 54,222 units in November. This is an increase of 0.6% from a month before. Home sales are just below the record for November, set a month before…read more.

Canadian real estate prices are rising, but investors are quietly pulling back. In fact, they’re withdrawing their capital at one of the fastest rates in history. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows residential investment dropped sharply in Q3 2021. This is the component of GDP that covers real estate’s most direct economic output. The GDP component recently printed a record, but falling home sales and delayed projects have it spiraling lower.

Canada Spends More Than A Third Of Its Investment Capital On New Housing

Canada’s investment in residential structures showed one of the sharpest declines in history. Seasonally adjusted investment fell to $231.2 billion in Q3 2021, down 7.1% ($17.7 billion) from the previous quarter. That second quarter had been the record high for investment in dollar terms.

The (sorta) good news is fixed capital formation, a measure of total GDP investment, didn’t fall as fast. Residential investment is 39.8% of gross fixed capital formation in Q3 2021. This is a decline of 2.4 points from the previous quarter, underperforming the economy. It peaked in Q1 2021, and the share is now 2.9 points lower from that peak. Canada’s dependence on real estate is starting to loosen, though it’s still very high.

Residential Investment Has 3 Major Subcomponents

Let’s go over where this weakness is coming from by looking at the three big subcomponents. Renovation, the biggest of the subcomponents, is the capital spent on major home renos. New construction is the second biggest and shows the amount of capital sunk into new housing. Ownership transfer costs are the smallest and represent costs associated with trading homes. This is primarily realtor commissions, known as broker revenues. All three segments showed weakness in the most recent data.

Investment For New Housing Made The Sharpest Drop Since 2009

New housing investment is the largest share of residential investment, and it slipped. The segment fell to a seasonally adjusted $102.7 billion in Q3 2021, down 2.6% ($2.8 billion) from the previous quarter. This would be the most significant drop since the beginning of public health measures.

Stat Can made a special note about this segment in regards to the size of its drop. When adjusted for inflation, investment in new housing construction fell 5.7% in Q3. Their analysis shows this is the largest drop for the segment since 2009 — the Great Recession. It really emphasizes the enormous role inflation is playing in this environment…read more.

Canadian housing is far outpacing the growth of its economy, shows government stats. That’s what 2020 home assessment values show, provided to us by Statistics Canada (Stat Can). Home prices added billions in value last year, as you might have guessed. What you may not know is Canadian homes have added so much value it’s now worth 3x the output of Canada’s economy.

Canadian Residential Real Estate Is Now Worth $6.1 Trillion

Canadian residential real estate prices have hit an obscene valuation, even when sandbagged. National assessment value hit $6.1 trillion in 2020, up 2.5% ($146.0 billion) from a year before. It’s not quite the growth rate you’d probably assume from monthly home sale reports. However, it is a mind-blowing amount considering this is a conservative estimate. The Queen should totally take out a HELOC on the country and buy herself a nice hot tub.

The Value Of Canada’s Homes Is 3x The Output Of Its Economy

Numbers this large are hard to appreciate without context, so let’s give it some. Canada’s housing is valued at more than 300% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). In contrast, US housing was worth just 170% of its GDP over the same period. As pricey as American real estate is, the value of home prices relative to its economy is almost half that of Canada…read more.

The Canadian real-estate market is heating back up, posting the strongest increase in sales since the beginning of the pandemic housing boom.

Home sales surged 8.6 per cent in October from the month before, the biggest increase since July 2020 when the country was emerging from its first pandemic lockdown and the housing market was getting started on its record run, according to data released Monday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

It was the second best October on record for sales. Benchmark prices surged 2.7 per cent on the month, the data show.

“After a summer where it looked like housing markets might be calming down a bit, October’s numbers suggest we might be moving back towards what we saw this spring, with regards to current market demand and supply conditions,” Cliff Stevenson, chair of the real estate board, said in a press release accompanying the report.

In Canada, the surge in demand for bigger living spaces driven by the pandemic has met a historic dearth of supply, helping make its housing market one of the hottest in the world and deteriorating affordability a top political issue. Though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has made addressing the supply shortage a priority after being re-elected in September, much of the power over housing policy lies with local governments, limiting the speed with which the issue can be addressed…read more.