Real estate market still booming in B.C.

With a muscular loonie and a B.C. housing market that shows no sign of slowing down, especially in Vancouver, logic suggests foreign investors might find the real estate market here a little chilly. U.S.-dollar purchasers face a double whammy of weakened currency and soaring real estate prices. But experts say that won't deter a lot of investors, who if anything see B.C. assets as an even better bet. And those who bought when the loonie was nicknamed the northern peso are chortling at their foresight and good sense.

The average selling price of a house in Vancouver and its immediate suburbs reached $819,794 last month, with townhouse condos nudging $600,000 and apartments $400,000. For British Columbia as a whole, average residential prices climbed 12 per cent in September to $436,000, compared with a year ago. Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar pushed through the US $1.04 barrier briefly Friday. Experts now believe it could easily surpass US $1.05 by the end of this year, an amazing climb from 65 cents in 2003. But the steroidal loonie won't deter most foreign buyers, except perhaps at the margins, says Cameron Muir, chief economist at the B.C. Real Estate Board. "The reality is many U.S. and offshore buyers who are buying here are buying luxury condominiums,'' he says. "Some of the latest ones downtown now are at $2,000 a square foot. "Buyers in that category ... are not as sensitive to exchange-rate changes because they have a very high net worth.''

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source: updatere.com