Vancouver, B.C.- How the mighty housing market has
fallen

post from Housing Doom on 05 November 2008 02:01:00 AM. © Housing Doom

Once more, an "unsinkable" North American housing market is taking on water. Home prices in Vancouver B.C. have dropped 8.8% since May:

VANCOUVER — Housing prices have fallen 8.8 per cent in the Vancouver area since May, according to new figures from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
The overall residential benchmark price in the region in October was $518,668, the real estate board said in a release yesterday afternoon, down about $50,000 from $568,411 in May.

It is the latest official assessment that has declared the boom in the real estate market in Vancouver and British Columbia to be over for now.
Last week, the British Columbia Real Estate Association said the price of homes in Vancouver and the province peaked in the spring, and sales of existing homes were plunging, predicting a decline of about 30 per cent for this year compared with last year.
Two weeks ago, Central 1 Credit Union said housing prices in the province could fall as much as 20 per cent by 2010 from this year’s peak.

And it’s not just the detached housing market that’s hurting:

Condo projects are also struggling around the region. Prices for apartments are down 3.5 per cent in greater Vancouver in the past year, a little less than for all homes in total, but new projects are suffering.
A hotel and condo project bearing the name of upscale hotel Ritz-Carlton exists now as only a hole in the earth in downtown Vancouver, with construction halted two weeks ago. The $500-million building, designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, was going to be a twisting glass tower almost 60 storeys tall on West Georgia Street, featuring 123 residences on top of the first 20 floors, which were to be the hotel.
The developer previously said the project was being slightly redesigned and the sales office was open by appointment. The sales office for the condos with prices starting at $2.5-million is now said to be closed. All advertising and other information at the site in Vancouver has been removed.
"I’m not at liberty to comment," said Sheryl Lim, vice-president of development at the Vancouver office of Holborn Group, a Hong Kong-based developer.

Lim may not be at liberty to comment, but our Canadian Doomers are. I expect a lot of them to be saying, "Told you so!"

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fallen/