Vancouver’s Housing Market Reaches Tipping Point

Vancouver had a 33 percent drop in home sales in September from a year ago, the biggest decline since 2010.

Bloomberg reports that the Canadian government rolled out new rules this week that close a loophole that gave some non-residents a tax break when they sold a home. In July, the province of British Columbia passed a 15 percent tax on foreign buyers.

Gone are the days when buyers placed bids without inspecting properties and sellers collected all-cash offers. Properties are taking longer to sell, transactions are plummeting and in some cases prices are coming down in a city where the cost of housing has doubled in the past decade.

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