It is a great time to invest in real estate in the Greater Vancouver area. A lot of people that I have talked with lately, that want to buy Vancouver real estate, are waiting for the real estate market to bottom out. The key question is, when will it hit the bottom? The problem with trying to time the real estate market perfectly is that once you've missed the bottom, it's too late and before you know it you're in a "feeding frenzy" of a real estate market once again.

I've recently heard some interesting information from a seminar that I attended held by Ozzie Jurock. He showed some stats that in the last 3 real estate market down-turns (over the past 20 years) the average price decline was 17% before the markets rebounded. If you take that information and look at our present market, you will see that we've almost reached that 17% reduction already. I've heard of stats that our market has declined as much as 15%. So any buyers that are waiting right now may be waiting for only another 2-3% drop in price.

If you are a buyer waiting for the bottom, ask yourself "what's more important, finding the right home or saving another $10,000 - $15,000 on the price?" If you purchased a home for the long term, prices will go up. Just because they go down a little after you buy a home doesn't necessarily mean it will stay down. When I bought my first townhouse, it cost $188,500. A year later a similar unit in my complex sold for $177,000. It didn't matter to me as I was staying in my townhouse long term, and seven years later I sold for $302,000! The point is, now is a great time to buy real estate in the Greater Vancouver area because there is a lot of selection out there and the real estate market is moving at a slow pace which is less stressful. So now is the time to really find that great property that you really want, and no-one is going to take it away from you in a multiple offer!

Another point to consider is that all experts are forecasting increased interest rates for the US, in the next couple of years. That means higher interest rates for Canada as well! That 2% - 3% that a buyer is trying to save in purchase price by waiting for the bottom will be absorbed by higher interest rates. All the savings will be gone and they will be stuck trying to buy a house in a busier market with more competition from other buyers. It's similar to the Stock Market, smart buyers don't buy when everyone else is, they buy when no-one else is!