A signal for greater stability in the Metro Vancouver market is the vanishing speculators, those fearless flippers who once turned big profits buying and selling homes. Real Estate Weekly and Landcor Data Corp. carried out a survey this year to judge the extent of speculation in today's market.
Their findings:
• Flippers never returned to the market in numbers after the 2008-09 recession.
• Six-month flips have practically disappeared this year.
• Except for the bottom of the market in 2009 -and so far this year - it has been profitable to flip in the Metro Vancouver market since 2004.
According to statistics from the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver real estate boards, any six-month flippers would have been burnt buying this year. Based on November figures, the average detached house in the Lower Mainland was worth 2.4 per cent less than six months earlier, and typical condo prices were off 1.6 per cent in the same period.
Watch for the annual Residential Investment Outlook 2013 in Western Investor for the down-and-dirty forecasts on next year's housing market across Western Canada.
