British Columbia

Since April, overall Greater Vancouver housing prices have decreased 2.8 per cent compared with the all-time high reached in April when the residential benchmark price was $593,419, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

The B.C. government announced plans to inject $115.6 million into the province's northeast gas sector last week just days after a Calgary-based investment dealer slashed its stance on the commodity.

Despite fears of a housing construction slump after the introduction of B.C.'s harmonized sales tax, new-home starts have more than doubled from a year ago in some markets.

Metro Vancouver's office market is posting an 8.4 per cent vacancy rate, up from 6.9 per cent a year ago, as rising subleases and new suburban construction adds to the inventory of vacant space.

Canadian investors are finding super low house prices in Phoenix, Arizona, and experts say rising foreclosures will keep prices low for some time.

Experts and industry watchers come at the question from every possible angle, but the underlying theme, the common thread uniting them all, is the belief the market of 2010 remains solid for the long-term investor.

Vancouver developer Howard Meakin hopes to "kick-start" waterfront development in Mission with a restaurant, marina and floatplane dock.

The new U.S.-based owners of the Dawson Mall in Dawson Creek are giving the run-down facility a $10 million facelift. "The centre has been in disregard for years," Milestone Communications Leonard Forkas Jr. CEO said.

Canada's leading shopping-centre developer is making big moves in the Lower Mainland with eyes on what will be a first for the company: mixed-use projects. On June 30, Toronto-based First Capital Realty Inc.

The first six-storey residential wood-frame building in B.C. has broken ground in Richmond. Work on Remy, a 188-unit affordable housing project designed by Patrick Cotter Architect Ltd., started in June.