Crumbling around the Edges

Reality is settling in more firmly around Vancouver's fringe.

Average housing prices on decline in Greater Victoria

With inventory rising in all housing categories and reduced sales activity, the average selling price of a detached bungalow in the second quarter of 2011 fell 4.8 per cent year-over-year to $495,000, the survey said.

"We're not seeing a lot of movement in the Victoria real-estate market, so inventory is up," said Carol Geurts, from Royal LePage Coast Capital Realty. "However, the average price decrease for most homes was less than two per cent."

Not sure how to translate this. The "median is different from the average," or "only distressed homes are selling and the non-distressed ones we are assuming would hold their value better."

Believe it or not, at the beginning of the burst in California, realtors would argue the following with a totally straight face: "Well, the value of houses for sale is dropping, but what about the value of houses that aren't for sale?"

We'll be generous and assume they are referring to the median, given that we already know that high end properties are suffering more than the rest.

"In many of Canada's regional markets, we saw house prices appreciate at a significantly faster rate than wages and salaries, and this trend cannot continue indefinitely," said Phil Soper, president of Royal LePage Real Estate Services.

Whoa. Is this what happens when realtors discover Red Bull? So shocking to see the obvious just stated like that.