You can see from the above table that year to date homes sales in our area have remained fairly constant. The way I see it, 2010 is no better or worse than 2008 or 2009. The market correction that occurred in 2008 happened after September 1st for the most part and is not reflected in the numbers above. Prices increased dramatically in 2007 and by looking at the chart one can see why. Home sales were about 25-30% higher that in the past 3 years.

I would like to point out one major factor that does not change in Metro Vancouver. That is the fact that our land supply is limited by 3 things, namely the ocean, the mountains and the Agricultural Land Reserve. The supply of land here is limited. Fly into a city like Calgary or Phoenix AZ and all you see are subdivisions being built and roads being pushed through. Land for homes is limited only by how far buyers are willing to drive. It's conceivable that homes could be built in either of those cities in larger and larger concentric circles. It's different here. We can only go east and great quantities of the available land is tied up in the ALR. This limited supply has the effect of pushing prices higher.