Vancouver real estate market cools

A seven-year real estate bubble has burst in the Metro Vancouver housing market, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said Monday.

Sales of homes in 2008 dropped by over 35 per cent, compared with 2007 sales of more than 38,000 homes, according to the real estate board.

Board president Dave Watt said the last half of 2008 also showed a consistent drop in prices.

At one point the market was so overheated that buyers would enter into bidding wars for properties and forgo inspections to undercut other potential purchasers.

Prices have dropped almost 11 per cent between December 2007 and the end of 2008, and Watt said the perception is that prices are still falling, so it is hard to identify the bottom of the market.

The cost of a single-family detached home in December 2001 was almost $360,000 and grew to about $650,000 by last December.