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A broad slow down in the overall economy.

Vacancy Rates are soaring in the retail industry.

Commercial real estate is looking at a loss of at least 15% in the next two years.

Interesting ideas in this piece from August 2008.

This "Months Of Inventory" (MOI) snapshot was based on MLS searches done for the VREB area on August 24, 2008.

Single family home listings total 1533. Condo inventory is up to 1224. There are 441 townhouses available - a slight increase. There are currently 379 million dollar plus properties listed. Expensive properties are now past twenty-one months of inventory, and make up more than 11% of all listings. Considering the current economic environment, that strikes me a bit overoptimistic, as far as buyers go in the Victoria market, I don't think there are that many of them who can go to that range.

BC Real Estate Association

BC Northern Real Estate Board

Canadian Real Estate Association

Chilliwack & District Real Estate Board

Fraser Valley Real Estate Board

Kamloops & District Real Estate Board

Kootenay Real Estate Board

"Liar Loans" were a big mistake...

This "Months Of Inventory" (MOI) snapshot was based on MLS searches done for the VREB area on August 16, 2008.

After a couple weeks away, I return to find not much has changed. Inventory continues to increase, albeit slowly. As bad as the July VREB numbers were, it looks like there hasn 't been any pick up in sales so far in August. Maybe August will be even worse? It seems the Times Colonist has jumped on that bandwagon now, anyway. Are they actually happily reporting the lowest BC house sales since the turn of the century? Read the story.

Roubini says we are only in the second inning of a 9 inning game, using a baseball metaphor. And since foreigners are not going to be buying lots of treasuries, a period of higher taxes and US decline is ahead.

Robert Shiller talks about his most recent book and his views on the US economy at the moment.  From Princeton University Press.

This "Months Of Inventory" (MOI) snapshot was based on MLS searches done for the VREB area on August 1, 2008.

Single family home listings total 1454. Condo inventory is down from the last check to 1198. There are now 442 townhouses available - a slight increase. Million dollar plus listings now total more than 20 months of inventory! There are currently 361 million dollar plus properties listed. Expensive properties are now approaching two years of inventory as these types of sales have fallen off a cliff.