“Vancouver and Victoria, especially, are posting near record unit sales this fall,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist.

With mortgage rates ranging from 3.89% to 4.29% for a 5 year fixed in the past 6 months there has been large consumer demand. Unit sales have increased by 20% from 2008 and there is a forecasted increase of another 8% in 2010.

Affordability constraints should help keep the home price inflation down even with the strong unit sales.

To read the full BCREA atricle please go to 

It looks like the fixed mortgage rates are on the way back down again. The CDN dollar has dropped slightly and so have the bonds. We are seeing a decrease to below 4% again for 5 year fixed. This is the second time in 6 months we have seen fixed rate increase from 3.8% to 4.4% and back down.

 3 year rates are down to 3.25%.

 It seems the economy is holding steady and the strength, or weakness, of the US dollar is controlling our fixed rates by affecting the bond rates.

 The Bank of Canada is still holding steady until next summer. No new news from them.