Massive Surge in $1M Homes
Nearly 22,000 B.C. houses are now worth more than a million dollars.
B.C.’s surging home market has nearly doubled the number of real estate millionaires in the past year with 22,000 single-family dwellings now assessed at more than $1 million.
“The massive increase in real-estate wealth comes mainly from rising prices fuelled by a booming market and a strong economy.
“The main drivers (behind the increases) are the great economy, job growth, population growth, consumer confidence and mortgage and interest rates (which) are still low from a historic perspective,” Cameron Muir, senior market analyst with Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation said in an interview.
“It’s no surprise, given the ramp-up in prices over the last two years.”
“It’s unlikely that trend is going to change soon, Muir said. As long as demand for housing out-strips supply, prices are going to continue to rise, he said.
The largest concentration of real-estate millionaires continued to be in Vancouver, but the biggest increases were outside the city and in many cases outside the Lower Mainland.
The 2006 assessment roll, which is based on values calculated on July 1, 2005, lists 21,890 single-family detached homes as being worth more than $1 million, up 79.4 per cent from the 7,633 million-dollar homes assessed for 2004.
Fiona Anderson (Vancouver Sun)
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