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by ttul 2762 days ago
Of course it’s impossible to say with complete certainty, but... Vancouver’s housing market has stalled since the foreign buyer tax and vacancy taxes started to bite. Inventories are high and stubbornly stuck there rather than falling as they do toward the end of the year. Prices on high end homes are down a great deal - 20-30% for homes priced higher than $3M.

I would say that at this early stage it looks like the new taxes are working precisely as intended.

2 comments

Seattle's housing market has stalled too, with no tax introduced.
I think the confounding factor is that the tax would move the market whether or not foreign buyers are an issue. The price drops are also mostly at the top end of the market, which benefits wealthy buyers.
The drops are starting to happen lower down as well. The market stall is across the board.