Some Good News
We wanted to take a moment to cut through the headlines, the news clips and investor blogs and share with you some very good news about this country and this great province we call home.
· In Canada 77,000 agents sold $30 billion worth of real estate during the height of the previous boom, in 1987, compared with 95,000 agents selling $160 billion today.
· Consumers in BC today have real estate needs, jobs to pay for their mortgages, and financing available.
· BC now has the lowest provincial personal tax rate of any province in Canada . Provincial corporate tax rates are 1/3 less today than in 2001.
· Provincial government investment in education has grown 30% in the past 7 years, and investment in health care has risen 60% in the same period.
· Today BC has 33000 more university seats than in 2001.
· In 2001 major construction projects inventory in the province was 46 billion dollars, for 19 consecutive quarters that number has increased, today the number is over 100 billion dollars.
· Out of all Canadian provinces, BC is least dependant on the US market.
· Technology employment in BC is growing faster than in any other sector in the province.
· The largest television audience in history, 3 billion people will watch the Vancouver Whistler Winter Olympics in 2010.
But, most importantly, a new RBC study conducted during the
market turmoil in October finds that Canadians overall have
intentions to purchase a home in the next two years has
remained steady at 22 per cent and have not changed since
January 2008. So what this means to you is, Canada continues
to be strong, BC continues to grow and Vancouver continues to
be one of the most desirable places in the world to live -
which translates into a healthy real estate market for years
come.
And that is some good news we wanted to share with you.