December 2013 BC Economic Fundamentals.

[Ally]

Job growth has stalled in BC



Job growth in B.C. has stalled, but it's too early to call Premier Christy Clark's highly touted jobs plan a bust, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said Wednesday.





Finance Ministry data released Wednesday as part of the government's November second-quarter financial report show a job contraction of 0.1 per cent - totalling 2,600 fewer jobs - over the same period last year.





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[Ally]

WestJet may expand service to Penticton





Penticton will have to prove its business case if it expects to convince WestJet to introduce service to the South Okanagan, says the city`s economic development officer.





Colleen Pennington and Mayor Garry Litke flew to Calgary on Monday to meet with senior WestJet scheduling officials. Pennington also met with Air Canada representatives in Vancouver earlier this month.





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[Ally]

Surrey asks feds for $1.8 billion for light rail



METRO VANCOUVER -- Surrey is skirting the traditional route for regional planning by appealing directly to the federal government for $1.8 billion in funding to build three light rail lines across the city.





The pitch, made under the Building Canada Plan, underscores years of frustration by Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts and other regional mayors over TransLink decisions that have pitted municipalities against each other for transit projects.





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[Ally]

Prince George rental property owners feeling the pinch



Property owners are beginning to take notice of the upcoming change requiring business licences for residential rentals.





As part of the core services review plan approved in July, city council voted to establish a new business licence fee for housing in a residential building with less than three units, including secondary suites and duplexes.





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[Ally]

More Lower Mainland rental housing, but for whom?





Jerking the portafilter onto the head of the espresso machine, Jeremy's mind would race as he struggled to recall customers' special requests, the high choking screech of the milk steamer like a dental drill to his brain. It's a popular notion that minimum-wage service-industry jobs like his as a barista are plentiful and easy to do, providing an employment lifeline for generations of young people. For Jeremy, however, that's simply not true.







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[Ally]

BC's strata depreciation report deadline looms





Time is running short for British Columbia strata corporations aiming to hit the Dec. 13 target to have government-mandated depreciation reports in place. Depending on who the stratas pick to prepare the report, they may be facing a wait of up to several months, which could take them into next year, and past the deadline.





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[Ally]

BC jobs plan on slow pace, but expected to pick up next year





VICTORIA - Premier Christy Clark says her goal to transform British Columbia's economy into one of Canada's top job-creation engines has hit a rough patch, but she's not about to ditch her jobs plan or call it a lemon.Clark, in a year end interview with The Canadian Press, said she expects job creation to pick up next year as potential deals with liquefied natural gas companies reach the signing stage.





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[Ally]

Vacancy rates up in Fort St. John and Dawson Creek





Vacancy rates have bounced back up in Fort St. John. According to the most recent survey by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation on vacancy rates in the province, Fort St. John now has a vacancy rate of 4.5 per cent, after dropping in 2012 to 3.6.





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[Ally]

Apartment rents rise slightly in Metro Vancouver





Metro Vancouver apartment vacancy rates are down slightly to 1.7 per cent and monthly rents have climbed $10 to $20 from a year ago, according to a new survey.








The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.'s Rental Market Report shows the average rent paid for a one-bedroom apartment in Metro Vancouver is now $1,005 (up from $982), while two-bedroom units rent on average for $1,281 (up from $1,261.)





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[Ally]

Rental vacancies down while cost to rent goes up





A rental market study of Prince George has found the number of units has decreased in while the cost of rent has increased. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reports a vacancy rate of 3.8% this year, down from 4%, last year.





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[Ally]

Greater Vancouver home sales up 13.6% in November





A total of 2,390 residential home sales were registered in Greater Vancouver in November ` up 38% compared with November 2012 ` according to British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) data released December 13.





A similar increase was seen in October with a 37% jump when compared with October 2012. Sales this November were down 11% when compared with one month prior, however.





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[Ally]

Are mainland Chinese investors to blame for Vancouver's skyrocketing home prices?





Vancouver, the gleaming city in British Columbia in far western Canada, boasts the highest real estate prices in North America, and second-highest in the world (after only Hong Kong), according to a study by Demographia International Housing Survey, a housing pricing service.





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[Ally]

Solid real estate sales seen for Victoria region





Canada`s housing market is expected to stay strong in 2014, while sales of previously owned homes look as though they will exceed earlier expectations, said the country`s largest real estate association. There`s optimism in Greater Victoria, where Pemberton Holmes real estate agent Nicole Burgess anticipates that 2014 will bring a year of solid sales, following a healthy 2013.





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[Ally]

Landlords face pressure as rental market in Nanaimo loosens up





A loose rental market means landlords have to work harder for tenants. The most recent rental housing report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. indicates a renter's market in Nanaimo. The report, for the period ending October, shows the vacancy rate at 6.7 per cent in Nanaimo, down from its peak of 8.3 per cent earlier this year, but still significantly higher than a few years ago, when it hovered near zero. It's also higher than the provincial average.





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[Ally]

BC only province with unchanged job vacancy rate





The job vacancy rate was unchanged in British Columbia in September compared with one year prior, according to Statistics Canada data released December 17.








B.C. was the only province not to see a drop in its job vacancy rate over this period, with the number of the number of vacancies remaining at 32,400.





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[Ally]

BC home sales heated up to highest level in years in July





Home sales in B.C. soared last month, the highest number for the month of July in several years, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association.





The association on Wednesday said 7,650 residential sales were recorded on the Multiple Listing Service, up 18 per cent from July 2012.





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[Ally]

Vancouver condo values enjoy a robust future, report predicts





VANCOUVER ` Millennials, immigrants and baby boomers have propelled condos to a 70-80 per cent share of Vancouver`s total housing sales ` dramatic proof that the `virtuous circle` of density and amenities supporting each other`s urban growth is an unstoppable trend and not a bubble, according to a Royal LePage report.








Granted, investors bruised by the tepid post-2008 economy may doubt the demand can be sustained. There`s `chatter over coffee about how some mysterious company is way overbuilding condominiums and there`s going to be a huge crash,` concedes Phil Soper, president and CEO of Royal LePagehttp://http://www.royallepage.ca/.






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[Ally]

BC will make 'biggest contribution to Canada' with natural gas





British Columbia will make its `biggest contribution to Canada` in its history if projects to tap into its massive natural gas reserves get the necessary investment in the coming months, Premier Christy Clark says.








As the fates of pipeline projects that will move Alberta bitumen to both coasts and south to the United States are being decided, Clark says B.C. is poised to make its own splash on the international energy market.




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[Ally]

Vancouver's growth propelled by the dynamic of a new generation





VANCOUVER ` With a shrug that amounts to a tectonic demographic shift, millennials ` especially in Metro Vancouver ` are rejecting their parents` suburban commuting lifestyle in favour of `live/work/play` neighbourhoods. If developers continue to meet this demand, and with the Canadian economy strengthening, all systems are go for 2014 to be a boom year in Canadian real estate, according to the recent Emerging Trends in Real Estate report by PwChttp://http://www.pwc.com/ca/en/ and the Urban Land Institutehttp://http://britishcolumbia.uli.org/.






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[Ally]

Strong housing forecast for BC in 2014





B.C.`s housing market will remain strong in the coming year as residential real estate sales and average prices nationally have soared to a five-year high, according to a new report by Re/Max.








The Housing Market Outlook 2014, released Wednesday, said improved economic performance combined with historically low interest rates and rising consumer confidence should spark greater gains in 2014, with housing sales and values expected to further appreciate.






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