Ask Ozzie JurockNo Comments

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Q: With our ever-increasing house prices, when will there be the day of reckoning for the Lower Mainland? Prices just can’t go up forever!

A: That day will be May 1, 2012. Well no, of course not.

No one knows when we have a slowdown, but I do know that this question has been asked time and time again.

While we have had slowdowns, we only had one collapse (1981) when we had 20 per cent interest rates. Values grow where people go … and people go to the Lower Mainland.

B.C. immigration is at the highest level in six years. Immigration to B.C. hit 44,179 last year, the highest level since 2005, according to a Deloitte & Touche report.

Last year, B.C. welcomed 47 per cent of the Investor Class immigrants who came to Canada, though it took in only 15.7 per cent of all immigrants.

Investor Class immigrants must have a minimum worth of $1.6 million and make an $800,000 investment with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. More than 60 per cent of these came from China. Last year, 5,500 Investor Class immigrants arrived in B.C.

That number means that 22,000 families need a place to rent or buy … and … this number does not include interprovincial migration which should add another 30,000 or so. This has been going on for five years and will continue to go on. Values grow where people go!

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