If you are thinking of buying a home, here is a brief update so you are prepared for today's real estate market. 

Based on what I have been seeing on the market lately, the real estate market in Greater Vancouver has been saturated with buyers and not enough listings. Homes that are well-priced have been seeing multiple offers, and/or having an accepted offer the same day it got listed. 

Therefore, I urge that if you are serious on buying a home, contact a Realtor (oh, hi ) so that we can monitor homes for you on a daily, if not multiple times throughout the day, basis. Then, we can get you in the home as soon as we can before everyone else does. This is the reality of the market that we are in currently, so you wouldn't want to miss out on the perfect home. 

Open Houses are still being discouraged by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, although I have noticed a few pop up over this past weekend. Many listings are only doing showings by private appointment so you will want to contact your Realtor if you would like to view a home. 

One more update on the real estate market - as of July 1st, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is tightening their regulations for insured mortgages. Insured mortgages are those who have less than 20% down payment. At least one of their purchasers on title has to have a credit score of at least 680. It was previously 600. Buyers will also no longer be able to borrow money towards their down payment. 

CMHC was considering raising the minimum down payment requirement from 5% to 10% but that was not passed.