Maple Ridge continues to be a buyers market. Latest numbers tabulated by Eximus Real Estate Team show Sell Through Rate (STR) of 12% for detached homes in Maple Ridge. Town homes currently have an STR of 5%. Supply and demand is currently in the favour of home buyers. 

Maple Ridge has been ranked once again as one of the top towns to invest in British Columbia by the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN). Maple Ridge's strong economic fundamentals make the current low STR poised to grow. The current buyers market provides a good opportunity for the Savvy investor to invest in an area with a bright future.

VICTORIA -- Global energy corporations are “dead serious” about investing in British Columbia’s potential as a world supplier of liquefied natural gas, said provincial Natural Gas Development Minister Rich Coleman after a $16 billion announcement on Tuesday.

Malaysian national oil company Petronas said the investment would go toward a natural pipeline, LNG plants and an export terminal near Prince Rupert, on B.C.’s northern coast. continue reading

We are a nation whose economy is buoyed by its exports.

Resource commodities such as oil, gas, lumber, copper and coal travel beyond our borders by rail, by road, by sea, by air, and by pipeline — supporting a large number of well-paying jobs and delivering revenue to government.

Exports of crude oil, most of it travelling to the U.S. via pipeline, accounts for roughly 20 per cent of Canada’s total net exports, Scotiabank vice-president and commodities analyst Patricia Mohr said in a recent interview.

“The size of our domestic market, in terms of what consumers can really contribute, is quite small relative to our exports,: Mohr said. “We are an exporting nation.” continue reading

OTTAWA — New Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz is signalling there will be no shift from the current low interest rate policy under his leadership, at least in the short term, despite fears it is creating imbalances in the economy.

Although keeping rates low for a long period has a distorting impact on the economy, including triggering excessive borrowing, Poloz says the central bank must also consider the risk to the fragile economy of raising rates too soon.

“My concern is we do the right thing so this (weak economy) doesn’t last for a generation,” he told the Commons finance committee. continue reading

OTTAWA — Canada’s economy finally came out of hibernation last month, pumping out a whopping 95,000 new jobs — the vast majority full-time — in the biggest month of employment growth in more than a decade.

The monthly employment report report released by Statistics Canada Friday found that 18,600 of those jobs were created in Alberta last month, driving the province’s year-over-year job creation tally to 48,800.

Despite the gains, Alberta’s unemployment rate actually rose slightly in May, up 0.4 percentage points as more people looked for jobs, according to the federal agency.

The massive gain was the first major improvement of 2013 and many times greater than economists had expected, dropping the unemployment rate one-tenth of a point to 7.1 per cent.

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Meeting on areas of common interest on economic growth and job creation, British Columbia Premier Christy Clark and Alberta Premier Alison Redford agreed to work together for the benefit of British Columbians and Albertans.

"Both Alberta and British Columbia benefit when we work together to grow the economy and create jobs," said Premier Clark. "As the economic powerhouses of Canada, it's in the national interest for us to succeed."  Continue reading

 Housing starts in British Columbia's urban areas1 were trending at 21,980 units in May compared to 22,093 in April according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)2 of housing starts.

"The housing starts trend in British Columbia recorded little change in May compared to April. The trend has been stable during the past few months with slightly higher levels of single-detached construction offsetting fewer multiple-family starts," said Carol Frketich, CMHC's Regional Economist for British Columbia. Continue reading

The U.K.’s BG Group Plc has unveiled plans to export the equivalent of one-quarter of Canada’s current daily natural gas production from a British Columbia terminal starting in 2021. The company, whose Canadian office is in Vancouver, has no reserves nearby.

The contradiction of an exporter with no gas has emerged as energy giants BG, Imperial Oil Ltd., Nexen Inc. and Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd. join the growing queue of companies willing to spend billions on liquefied natural gas projects in order to capture higher prices overseas. continue reading

Sotheby’s International Realty is seeing a surge in demand from wealthy Syrians, Egyptians and Europeans looking for a safe and relatively stable place to park their millions — Canada’s softening real estate market.

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Consumer confidence is falling, according to a survey, but people in BC are by far Canada’s most optimistic.

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