March Real Estate STATS are out for the Fraser Valley

For Immediate Release: April 2, 2008
SPRING BODES WELL FOR FRASER VALLEY BUYERS

(Surrey, BC) – In March, selection reached a 10-year high on the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS®), with the number of active listings reaching 9,361, an increase of 27 per cent compared to the 7,351 listings available during the same month last year. The previous March that offered as much or greater inventory was in 1998, when Fraser Valley had 10,148 active listings. The total number of sales processed through Fraser Valley’s MLS® in March was 1,315, a decrease of 25 percent compared to March 2007 when 1,743 sales were processed.

The number of new listings in March also decreased slightly with the Board receiving 3,277 compared to 3,369 new listings received during the same month last year, a decrease of 3 per cent. In March, average Fraser Valley home prices continued to increase in the strong single digits for detached and townhomes and remained in the double digits for condominiums.
Kelvin Neufeld, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board explains, “With a significant increase in product and properties taking longer to sell, we have a more competitive market for sellers in the Fraser Valley right now, yet enough demand to keep prices trending upwards.

BC home sales drop for second straight month

"VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Continued erosion in housing affordability is taking a toll on the ability to pay for some buyers. The British Columbia Real Estate Association is reporting home sales have fallen for the second month in a row, and we've seen the slowest start to a year since 2003." LINK

JPMorgan to buy ailing Bear Stearns for $2 a share

• "a stunning collapse for one of the world's largest and most venerable investment banks."
• "JPMorgan's acquisition of Bear Stearns represents roughly 1 per cent of what the investment bank was worth just 16 days ago."

LINK

Now I am starting to get scared, this is starting to get really ugly!! Is tomorrow going to be another "Black Monday"!!!??? Are we in for another Great Depression??

I will go as far to say that there will be some very sad looking bank stocks after tomorrow.