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“Spring is made of solid, fourteen-karat gratitude, the reward for the long wait. Every religious tradition from the northern hemisphere honors some form of April hallelujah, for this is the season of exquisite redemption, a slam-bang return to joy after a season of cold second thoughts.”

—  Barbara Kingsolver

Stats Center!

Looking Back at March 2024:

The benchmark price for a property in Metro Vancouver is currently $1,196,800

(Prior Month - $1,183,300)

This represents a 1.1% increase compared to February 2024

and a 4.5% increase over March 2023.

Mortgage Rates

Next Bank of Canada rate meeting is April 10th.

Bloomberg has the odds of a drop at: one-in-five chance for Aprils meeting,

an 80% chance for June and a 100% chance for July.

Real Estate News

Couple of new twists for property buyers in BC.

First was the PTT exemption was raised from 525k to 835k. This is long overdue - the prior amount was laughable low. And if you’re one of my first time homebuyers who had to pay PTT - SORRY but this exemption is not retroactive and only counts for properties starting April 1st.

Second was the introduction of a tax on home flipping. Under this new legislation if you sell a property within 2 years of owning it you’ll be taxed on the income you made. The tax will be prorated based on the amount of time the property was owned: 20% on income earned on properties sold within 365 days of purchase, and will decline to zero between 366 and 730 days. Exemptions apply for divorce, death, disability, job loss / relocation and more.

What did I do last month?

Watched This: Shōgun on Disney+

I’ve seen some articles comparing Shogun to Game of Thrones and while it has some similarities it doesn’t seem a fair comparison. I’ve watched all six episodes that have been released (of ten total) and it’s a compelling well paced show. There is some gore but it doesn’t go out of it’s way to emphasize it like GOT did.

Oddly - the Japanese dialogue is subtitled, but the Portuguese is spoken in English and English is spoken as well. It was a little confusing at first.

Of note is that is was partially filmed at the Flavelle Cedar mill site in Port Moody - right near Brewers Row & Rocky Point. The production even imported a massive Japanese white pine tree for the filming, which was later donated to the city and now resides in Pioneer Memorial Park by City Hall. See some photos of the tree getting moved in the link below.

The article below also goes into detail on the development plans for the site - which if it every gets fully approved will feature twelve towers reaching up to 38 storeys in height, as well as office, industrial and retail spaces.

Something Funny Before You Go:

Referral & Gratitude

Curious what I’m up to? Voyeurism via Social Media is the key!