[refurb]

That is true, but unfortunately not everyone can decide when they move. Losing a job, having a family member get sick, etc can force a sale and realization of loses.

But overall, housing prices do increase over time relatively inline with inflation. So even if Vancouver takes a huge hit in the short-term, over the long haul it will keep going up.

One interesting thing I noticed is that some housing markets don't really go down that much, they just stop growing. I can remember the home my parents owned in Toronto. They sold it for $325K in 1990. In 2005 I looked up the price and it was about the same. Adjusted for inflation, the it was a price decrease.

[gabbo]

> One interesting thing I noticed is that some housing markets don't really go down that much, they just stop growing. I can remember the home my parents owned in Toronto. They sold it for $325K in 1990. In 2005 I looked up the price and it was about the same. Adjusted for inflation, the it was a price decrease.

This isn't actually what happened in Toronto, to be clear. There was a huge housing boom (especially condos) in Toronto in the late 80s, followed by a bust. >100% gain in real housing prices between 1985-1989, then a 40% drop between 1989-1996. What you saw was a housing collapse which took until the 2000s to recover, not a flatlining.