August's sale will be low, of course and as expected. We may even see a bit of price weakness for this month.
This is in part because of the 15% additional Property Transfer Tax enacted by BC government. This new and significant tax will certainly drive away quite a number of foreign buyers. Those who believe that foreign buyers would not care about the added expense are just ignorant. As the statistics suggests, this 10% of purchasers should be absent from the market in August.
The Tax should also have had a stunning effect for other people who are not subject to additional cost but are likely scared and have a short expectation.
August has traditionlly been vacation season and usually sees low sales volumn.
Overall, I wouldn't feel surprised if sales volume turns out significant smaller.
On the other hand, the big picture has not changed. Housing supply remains inadequet, interest rate at historic low and may get reduced even further because of Canada's overall economic conditions.
In another word, Vancouver's housing market will be picking up soon after the market breathes away the tax smells.
I feel the next 1-2 months would make the best buying window.
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