Steve Saretsky

Steve Saretsky is a Vancouver residential Realtor and author behind one of Vancouver’s most popular real estate blogs, Vancity Condo Guide. Steve is widely considered a thought leader in the industry with regular appearances on BNN, CBC, CKNW, CTV and as a contributor to BC Business Magazine. Steve provides advisory services to banks, hedge funds, developers, and various types of investors.

January 20th, 2022 | Broken Supply Chains

Steve Saretsky Blog - As of this week, unvaccinated US truckers will not be able to cross the Canadian border. This decision by the Trudeau government is going to have significant economic impacts. COVID politics aside, let’s discuss the economic ramifications moving forward and how this could ultimately come full circle for the housing market. More than 70% of […]

January 11th, 2022 | The Saretsky Report December 2021

The Saretsky Report - It was a blockbuster year for the Vancouver housing market. Annual sales finished the year at just over 44,000, an all time record high. The previous high of 42,000 was set in 2015 during the last housing boom that was sparked by an inflow of offshore cash.

January 10th, 2022 | It is a Matter of Policy Decision

Steve Saretsky Blog - Here’s a wild stat to start your week off, Canada added 410,000 new immigrants in 2021. In the United States, a country nearly ten times the size, added just 500,000 new immigrants. Canada is built on immigration, and it is certainly needed. However, perhaps it’s worthwhile to discuss the tradeoffs, which seemingly no media outlet […]

January 5th, 2022 | As Prosperous as Your Real Estate

Steve Saretsky Blog - It was quite the year for the nations housing market. As I highlighted a few weeks ago, this shouldn’t come as a surprise considering our monetary base has expanded by about 23% over the past eighteen months. We are undergoing the largest monetary experiment in modern history. But enough of that, let’s take a look […]

December 22nd, 2021 | Monetary Imprudence

Steve Saretsky Blog - Christmas came early for the 69% of Canadians who own a home. The latest data released from the Canadian Real Estate Association shows national home prices inflated at the quickest pace ever, rising 25% from last year. The home price index which measures the price of a typical home in Canada now sits at $780,400, […]

December 14th, 2021 | The Saretsky Report – November 2021

The Saretsky Report - It was another painful month to be a home buyer in Greater Vancouver. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. Sales increased 12%, rising to their second highest levels on record, falling just short of November 2015. Meanwhile, inventory collapsed a whopping 40% from last years levels. Obviously this is creating […]

December 13th, 2021 | Wartime Fiscal and Monetary Policy

Steve Saretsky Blog - Despite the market pressuring the Bank of Canada to begin liftoff and start hiking interest rates, they held firm once again this past week. The bank flagged the recent floods in BC and the emergence of the Omicron variant as air cover to stand pat. Per the official release, “the Governing Council judges that in […]

December 6th, 2021 | This is What a Crisis Looks Like

Steve Saretsky Blog - House shoppers are showing very few signs of fatigue. The latest data out of Vancouver & Toronto for the month of November suggests the bull market remains fully intact. Greater Vancouver home sales jumped 11% from last year, the second strongest November on record besides 2015. In case you forgot, the winter of 2015 was […]

November 29th, 2021 | Who’s to Blame?

Steve Saretsky Blog - Bank of Canada deputy governor, Paul Beaudry is worried about the number of investors flooding the housing market. According to the Bank, investor buying has doubled since the start of the pandemic, while purchases by first-time homebuyers have increased about 45 per cent. “A sudden influx of investors in the housing market likely contributed to […]

November 26th, 2021 | Vancouver Still Seeing Bidding Wars for Homes

HoweStreet.com Radio - Government “creative” taxes not solving housing affordability

November 25th, 2021 | Interest Rates Do Not Reflect Inflation

Steve Saretsky Blog - We got a string of new data this past week confirming inflation in consumer goods, and housing are proving to be more than transitory. Canada’s consumer price index continued to drift higher with prices hitting an 18 year high, up 4.7% from last October. The recent floods in BC are already creating significant food and […]

November 15th, 2021 | Funding The Biggest Borrower

Steve Saretsky Blog - The calls for impending interest rate hikes continues. CIBC’s chief economist, Benjamin Tal, was out recently suggesting the Bank of Canada could hike its benchmark interest rate at least six times beginning in early 2022. “I think there is a risk of getting into the market at today’s rates,” noted Tal. “We are still dealing with […]

November 11th, 2021 | The Saretsky Report – October 2021

The Saretsky Report - The Greater Vancouver housing market continued to rip in the month of October. If you focus squarely on sales you’d be missing the forest for the trees. Sales were officially down 5%, a small drop from last years all-time record high. However, new listings absolutely plunged, dropping 28%, and total inventory for sale dropped a […]

November 9th, 2021 | Cooling Off Period

Steve Saretsky Blog - The BC Government announced it is looking at several cooling measures for the housing market in 2022. They have highlighted two measures. The first is an end to the blind bidding process, and the other is a mandatory “cooling off period” which will allow any buyer a 7 day recession period to back out of […]

November 1st, 2021 | Financial Repression

Steve Saretsky Blog - The Bank of Canada continues to slowly drain liquidity after flooding the system with a firehose of cash during the pandemic. Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem announced the end of Canada’s QE program (also known as money printing). Furthermore, in Macklems words, “We expect to begin increasing our policy rate sometime between April and […]

October 25th, 2021 | The Complicated Path Forward

Steve Saretsky Blog - Consumer price inflation ripped higher in September, surging 4.4% year-over-year, the fastest pace of price increases in 18 years. Let’s discuss this further. We have an inflation problem and the Bank of Canada remains of the view that inflation will be transitory. Although they really can’t say otherwise, for if they did it would only […]

October 19th, 2021 | Back to the Offer Table

Steve Saretsky Blog - It was back to the offer table for Canadian house shoppers. After a brief pause in shopping activity, home buyers returned in September. Sales activity increased 0.9% from August, as new listings declined. Low inventory levels continue to decimate the nations housing market as buyers pick over the scraps. There is just 2.1 months of inventory […]

October 15th, 2021 | Vancouver Real Estate, Inflation, Mortgage Rates

HoweStreet.com Radio - Bitcoin heating North Vancouver

October 11th, 2021 | Taper Time

Steve Saretsky Blog - The Canadian economy added 157,000 jobs in September, finally recouping all of the jobs lost during the height of the pandemic. However, wage inflation remains tepid, growing just 1.7% from last year, despite overall CPI inflation running at 4.1%, an eighteen year high. In other words, wage inflation is not keeping pace with the rising […]

October 8th, 2021 | The Saretsky Report – September 2021

The Saretsky Report - Despite the uncertainties of a federal election the housing market continued to hum along in September. Home sales dipped 13% when compared to last September, but that should not come as a surprise considering last September marked an all-time record high for the month. Year-overyear base effects will be hard to top in the months […]

October 5th, 2021 | BC, Bring Cash

Steve Saretsky Blog - We’ve talked a lot about the great reshuffling here. The pandemic changed a lot of things, including where people want to live, and how they want to live. The lust for bigger spaces for less money has driven an exodus away from the city. Recent data from Stats Canada shows Canadians are on the move. Interprovincial […]

October 2nd, 2021 | Same, But Different?

Steve Saretsky Blog - It took over $600 million of tax pay dollars to reach the same outcome, another liberal minority government. I can think of a few better places to spend $600 million, affordable housing supply being one of them. Nonetheless, what’s done is done, and we now have some clarity on the direction of government and how […]

September 20th, 2021 | Election Day

Steve Saretsky Blog - CPI inflation ripped, hitting 4.1% in August. Inflation in Canada is now accelerating at its fastest pace since 2003. The homeowners’ replacement cost index, which is related to the price of new homes, continued to trend upward, rising 14.3% year over year in August—the largest yearly increase since September 1987. Meanwhile, borrowing costs continue to fall. […]

September 17th, 2021 | Housing Crisis, FOMO, Mortgage Rates, China

HoweStreet.com Radio - Foreign Home Buyers, Immigration

September 15th, 2021 | The Saretsky Report August 2021

The Saretsky Report - Suffice to say, the housing market remains front and center of most discussions. After surging to unprecedented levels during the height of the pandemic, it has taken a much needed breather this summer. However, this story is far from over.