Vancouver homeowners can be forgiven for thinking they've won the lottery.

House prices have nearly tripled in the past decade and those who successfully timed the market have earned chortling rights. Long-term owners who bought their homes in 1987 for $200,000 could sell them today for $900,000 or more; a gain in the order of $700,000 or 350 per cent!

But view those numbers like an investor would and a different picture emerges. The annualized return over the 25 years is just 6.2 per cent and that doesn't take into account annual inflation of 2.4 per cent (as calculated by the Bank of Canada). Nor does it factor in the costs associated with home ownership, such as maintenance, repairs, renovations, property taxes and insurance. Consider too that the interest charges for a conventional mortgage with 25 per cent down, a 25-year amortization and monthly payments at a rate of 4.2 per cent will amount to $122,150. Finally, there's the opportunity cost of the $50,000 down payment.

For instance, the down payment could have been invested in stocks. A portfolio that tracked the S&P/TSX composite index in the same time would have returned 6.1 per cent per annum with no costs other than a modest management fee for an index fund, typically less than one per cent.

One argument in favour of purchasing a home is you can't live in a stock portfolio. The amount spent on rent for com-parable accommodation will likely approximate the monthly mortgage payment, the only difference being that rent pays off someone else's mortgage rather than your own.

Besides, the stock market is seen as more speculative and volatile than a house in a good neighbourhood. Between 1985 and 2005, the annual inflation-adjusted return of a Metro Vancouver house was 5.38 per cent, compared with 5.47 per cent for stocks. However, the standard deviation for stocks - a measure of their volatility - was 16.6 per cent, more than double that of the house.

Still, like every other market, real estate can have its ups and downs. In a report last year, BMO Capital Markets identified four major price corrections in the Vancouver market: 36.1 per cent from the second quarter of 1981 to the fourth quarter of 1982; 14.4 per cent from the first quarter of 1990 to the first quarter of 1991; 20.2 per cent from the first quarter of 1995 to the fourth quarter of 1996; and 13.1 per cent from the second quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009.

Another negative for the owner-occupied home as an investment is that it is immovable and illiquid. While a poorly performing stock can be sold and replaced in minutes online, a house can sit on the market for weeks or months before an acceptable offer materializes. When it does, there are commissions, often about five to six per cent of the purchase price, and legal bills, to pay.

Unlike stocks, the capital gains on the sale of a principal residence are tax exempt, a benefit of about $150,500 using the example at the top of this article. Capital gains on the disposal of stocks are taxable unless they are held in a registered retirement savings plan or a tax-free savings account.

All that being said, investing is not only about chasing yield; it's about efficient portfolio allocation to minimize the volatility of returns for any given targeted return. In a 2006 paper, Tsur Somerville, associate professor of real estate finance at UBC and director of the UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, argued that for most investors, B.C. real estate should form at least 50 per cent of an investment portfolio that also includes Canadian equities and bonds.

Somerville says owner-occupied housing should be considered in the same frame-work as other investments because it displays the same risk-return trade-offs. It follows buyers should choose a property that is optimal for investment purposes, which might not always coincide with one's ideal of a "dream home."

Given that one of the chief objectives of asset allocation is to reduce volatility, it seems appropriate to opt for a fixed-rate mortgage. There is enough variance in real estate markets without the added concern of fluctuating interest rates.

It is important to recognize the interest cost on borrowing for investment purposes is tax deductible, but the interest cost on a mortgage is not, a significant difference from the United States, where it is. At today's low interest rates, B.C. homeowners might be inclined to let the mortgage run its course and invest savings in RRSPs or other financial products. An investor, however, is more likely to eliminate that non-deductible debt as quickly as possible. In the same vein, an investor would hesitate to refinance a mortgage (i.e., take out a second mortgage) or draw down a home equity line of credit unless the borrowing could be so arranged as to meet the Canada Revenue Agency deductibility test of being for the purpose of earning business or investment income.

The notion that one's home is an investment vehicle rather than a consumption good is a relatively recent concept and it's not one that sits comfort-ably with many homeowners. People buy houses to settle down, start a family, raise children and become part of a com-munity. It's where we conduct the business of living our lives. A house is more than a store of wealth, one homeowner opined, it is a store of memories

What is it about 100-year-old houses that prompts thousands of people to buy tickets to tour them, to spend entire Sundays oohing and aahing over their vintage millwork, stained glass windows and rambling staircases?

Is it the thrill of stepping back in time in a venerable building that has survived The Great Depression, world wars, industrial and technological revolutions and a hurricane or two?

Is it the opportunity to bear witness to the transformative power of a homeowner’s sweat equity, the kind of commendable commitment that turns a teardown into a 21st-century gem?

Is it the thesis that the greenest house is a house that is already built, and that in a region as young as ours, we should view our heritage roots through the lens of both nostalgia and eco-consciousness?

Diane Switzer, executive director of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, says it’s all the above, and then some.

The VHF, founded in 1998, held its first Vancouver home tour in 2003 and is busy preparing for the organization’s 10th annual tour on June 3. There are 10 homes featured this year, including two that are marking their centenary.

Switzer says the unwavering popularity of the tour reflects a growing awareness, and appreciation, of Vancouver housing stock that has stood the test of time, and the realization that it’s simply not sustainable to endlessly demolish and build new houses in our cities, especially given a StatsCan tidbit she cites that notes 50 per cent of Canadian buildings were constructed before 1970.

“The notion of a 100-year-old house starts to give our city a sense of history ... it’s emotional, that sense of place, but it’s also practical, with reuse and rehab. There’s some cachet to saying you live in a 100-year-old house. All of a sudden you speak with pride about that, about recycling houses.”

There’s no question, she says, that the city’s beautiful old homes are the lure of the tour, or that many tour-goers sign up in the hopes of taking away ideas for their own DIY projects. But some, she adds, just want to learn more about know their city’s history.

There is also heightened interest these days in different house styles, from different eras. Additional tours offered by the VHF this year include the already sold-out mid-century modern bus tour, the Vancouver Special tour (Sept. 22) and the laneway house tour (Oct. 20).

The notion of opening private local homes to the public was hatched in New Westminster, where the annual heritage home tour and tea is celebrating its 33rd outing on May 27. Its 1,500 tickets are nearly sold out.

Catherine Hutson of the New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society says the tour’s popularity has remained strong over the years, but the organization has also witnessed a sea change.

The tour began, she says, in response to the wholesale demolition of old homes that began in the Royal City in the late 1970s, prompting a group of activists to launch the tour as a means to convince the public — and government officials — that the 1,000 or so heritage homes in the community are civic treasures worth preserving.

“When it first started, there was a need to save and highlight heritage and restoration, to save the city’s old homes. It was almost activism. But now it’s different.”

For one thing, says Hutson, the tour crowd is younger. While many ticket buyers are looking for rehab tips for their old homes, more and more tour-goers are interested in decorating and home improvement, fuelled by televisions shows on networks like HGTV.

And while city’s assortment of stately Queen Anne, Victorian, Edwardian and craftsman homes continues to be a huge draw on the New West tour, Hutson also says there is an increasing appetite for a wider range of “newer” old houses, which is why this year’s lineup features a house built in 1956.

Not to be forgotten, of course, is the other reason that home tours have us lining up around the block: Human nature dictates that we are hardwired snoops, perpetually curious about how others live and the places in which they do that living.

Or, as Hutson, says: “It’s a lookie-loo’s dream.”

The 10th annual Vancouver Heritage Foundation Heritage House Tour takes place on Sunday, June 3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The tour price is $40; go to vancouverheritagefoundation.org for more information.

For information on the New Westminster Heritage Tour & Tea, which takes place on May 27, go to newwestheritage.org.

Condo marketing guru Bob Rennie has a simple response to talk that Metro Vancouver's real estate market is headed for a hard landing because of sky-high prices.

"It's not a bubble," Rennie, director of Rennie Marketing Systems, said in an interview following his keynote address Thursday to the Urban Development Institute.

"With 80 per cent of the [condo] market that traded in [Metro] Vancouver last year, you only needed a household income of $52,800 to purchase.

That's not a bubble story."

Rennie, who spoke to a full house, said aging baby boomers with billions of dollars in equity will become a much greater force in the condo market as they increasingly downsize from expensive single-detached homes, and put money aside for their children.

He noted the number of people aged 55-64 will increase 38 per cent between 2009 and 2018, those 65-74 will increase 56 per cent, while those 35-54 will only increase by 4.6 per cent.

Because of that, he said, developers should shift their thinking into providing more larger one-bedroom condos to accommodate the downsizing boomers.

"Baby boomers are sitting on $88 billion in equity in Greater Vancouver and they're looking at their retirement years.

"That equity will be freed over the next 15 years [and] when they sell their home, they'll buy down and help their kids."

Rennie said there were about 19,000 condo sales in Metro Vancouver in 2011. While the average price for 80 per cent of those condos was $315,000, the overall average price was $427,000, which required an income of $66,000 to finance (with a 25-per-cent down payment).

Rennie noted that proximity to transit is paramount for today's homebuyer.

"In the '70s and '80s it was location, location, location. In the '90s through mid-2000s, it was timing, timing, timing. From here forward, it's transit, transit, transit."

He also called for more regional planning to make homes more affordable.

Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban economics and real estate at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, said he also doesn't believe there's a real estate bubble, largely because there's not an explosion in housing starts, typical for real estate bubbles.

Somerville said while the affordability numbers have been skewed by the higher end parts of the market - "there were double-digit increases in Richmond, Vancouver, Burnaby and West Vancouver, with single-digit increases every-where else" - the region is still expensive compared to other cities in Canada.

"Compared with other cities, that income [$52,800] gets you a house," he said.

"Here, it gets you a condo. That means we're expensive, but that's the reality of what we are. "It's still an expensive place to live, but it's not unaffordable. You'll end up smaller and further away from the core."

The demand for high-priced housing was strong in most Canadian markets in the first months of this year, with records set in 10 of the 16 markets it tracks.

 

Vancouver was one of the six markets where the luxury market has cooled off after an especially hot period last year but demand in Toronto remained high.

 

The price of luxury housing depends on the market, from a low of $500,000 in mid-sized cities such as St. John's, N.L., and Halifax to a high of $2 million in the Vancouver area.

 

In the case of Regina, which had the biggest increase in luxury sales this year, there was a 56 per cent more sales of at least $500,000.

 

In Canada's most expensive market, Vancouver, there was a 31 per cent decline from last year's peak with 393 luxury homes sold in the first quarter.

 

By contrast, Toronto's market has been hotter than last year, with 412 homes sold for at least $1.5 million each — a 49 per cent increase from early 2011.

Searching for your first home is exciting, but can also be over-whelming, both financially and emotionally. You may have a lot of questions such as: Do I qualify for a mortgage? What's a pre-approval? And what is amortization and why does it matter?

According to recent RBC Royal Bank research, 67 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 are looking to purchase their first home within the next two years.

"You will benefit by doing your research in advance and by setting a budget to help avoid any last-minute surprises," says Melissa Jarman, director of client strategies for RBC.

"Online tools and calculators along with advice from a mortgage adviser can help you prepare for any unforeseen costs and assess which payment options best fit your financial situation."

Jarman gives us three more tips to get started:

. Prepare a budget - a bud-get will help you live within your means and avoid unnecessary debt upon purchasing a home. To help alleviate financial stress, set a maximum budget and financial parameters. Online budgeting tools such as myFinance-Tracker (www.rbcroyalbank.com/ myfinancetracker) can help track where your money is going.

. Know your financial options - many first time homebuyers do not know the options avail-able when it comes to financing a home. By speaking with a mort-gage specialist, you can explore a variety of financial avenues and set your financial goals.

. Find an affordable mort-gage payment - mortgage payment calculators can help deter-mine how much your monthly payments will be, based on the amount borrowed, interest rates, mortgage term and payment schedule. This link may be helpful: www.rbcroyalbank.com/ products/mortgages/mortgage_ calculators.html.

Further advice and tips can be found at www.rbcadvicecentre. com, or join the discussion about purchasing your first home at Facebook.com/rbcroyalbank.

Home construction is feeding a stable Metro Vancouver housing market with an increase in multiple-family starts offsetting fewer single-detached starts last month, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

"It's steady as she goes," noted CMHC senior market analyst Robyn Adamache of their latest report on residential construction intentions, which concluded there were 1,332 starts in April, about the same as April 2011.

However, starts were up 16 per cent to 5,963 for the first four months of 2012 compared to the first four months of 2011. Multi-family starts are up 20 per cent in that period to 4,987, while single-detached home starts are up one per cent to 976.

Adamache said that although the local market is doing well, she sees no danger of a potential glut of new condos saturating the market.

"I don't see it," she said. "The numbers are rising, but they're nowhere near the numbers in 2007-08, when there were 20,000 units under construction. Now, we're just over 11,000."

Cameron Muir, chief economist for the B.C. Real Estate Association, agreed.

"The numbers can be volatile on a month-to-month basis, [but] overall consumer demand is trending on a 10-to-15 year average. We're looking at the total housing starts for B.C. up 1.5 per cent over last year and up 3.3 per cent in Metro Vancouver. There have been moderate gains in construction activity. But, at this point, we don't see that [a condo oversupply]."

Adamache noted that if the rest of 2012 plays out like it has so far, there would be 18,400 starts for the year in Metro Vancouver, just under CMHC's forecast of 18,500 and above the 17,867 starts in 2011.

There are about 1,700 new condos unsold in the region, she added, far less than the mid-'90s peak when there were twice that many.

"All in all, the condo market is stable. Prices have been flat for some time and sales have been steady."

Adamache said that the cities of Vancouver and Surrey continue to record strong new home construction activity, with condominium apartments accounting for most of the starts in Vancouver and townhouses the main type of new homes in Surrey.

Other hot spots, according to Canada's national housing agency, include White Rock, New Westminster and Maple Ridge. For urban B.C., the seasonally adjusted annual rate rose 6.3 per cent to 22,100 in April, up from 20,800 in March. Actual numbers for urban B.C. in April were 1,867, slightly lower than 1,898 in April 2011.

Nationally, housing construction starts blew past expectations in April, with CMHC saying there was a season-ally adjusted annual rate of 244,900 housing starts last month. That was up 14 per cent from the previous month.

"While unseasonably warm weather has been helping starts in recent months, April's return to more normal seasonal temperatures still saw home building soar," CIBC World Markets economist Emanuella Enenajor said in a research note.

Construction on multiple-housing units in urban areas drove the overall gains. They were up 27.4 per cent to a rate of 158,500. Urban singles saw a gain of 0.6 per cent to 67,700.

Regionally, there was a surge of 56.5 per cent in urban housing starts in Quebec, and increases of 12.2 per cent in Ontario, 6.3 per cent in the Prairies, and 2.6 per cent in Atlantic Canada.

Alexis Lum is building a laneway house in his parents' backyard for three reasons: It's more affordable than a two-bedroom apartment; he can rent it out if he decides not to live there; and he can have privacy and independence from his parents, while being close enough for regular family dinners.

"I do love Mama's cooking," he said, adding he's sharing the investment with his brother, Antoine, 31. Lum, 28, is a secondary school French teacher at Southpointe Academy in Tsawwassen.

Lum's situation is typical: laneway houses have been allowed in Vancouver since 2009, and usually they are built as a way for parents to help their adult children enter the pricey Vancouver housing market.

Lum was raised in the Dunbar house behind which he's now building the laneway house for about $270,000, and he's excited to take the keys.

"I love it. It's absolutely fantastic. It's a beautiful, small house," Lum said of the two-bedroom home in his parents' backyard.

Michael Lyons, vice-president of marketing for Smallworks, a builder of laneway homes in Vancouver, said at least half his customers are building these small houses at the back of their lots for the next generation.

"They can't afford to buy in the neighbourhood where they grew up. People want to stay close to their family," he said.

The cost to build a laneway home is usually between $250,000 and $270,000; that price includes pre-construction costs of $11,500, excavation and site work of $30,000 to $35,000 and another $175,000-$200,000 for the construction, Lyons said.

"By the time the dust has settled, you're in the $250,000-$270,000 range."

For that, you can have a 500-square-foot house with one bedroom and one bathroom, plus a garage, on a regular 33-by-122 lot in Vancouver, Lyons said. A 50-by-122 lot can accommodate a 750-square-foot house, plus garage, with two bedrooms and two baths.

They can be built on the west side of the city; 80 per cent of Vancouver properties fit the necessary R1 or R5 zoning, Lyons said.

With the benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver sitting at $679,000 and housing affordability a significant problem in the Lower Mainland, a laneway house could be considered a bargain.

You cannot stratify or subdivide to sell the house separately; it rides with the property like a basement suite, Lyons said. However, co-owners can have a contract between them that splits the ownership, based on what-ever terms they agree to.

For financing, although the land owner's name must always be on the documents, some banks, including Vancity, have created mortgages specifically designed for laneway homes. Vancity waives the legal and appraisal fees for these mortgages and gives two-per-cent cash back to people who bring another mortgage to Vancity for a laneway home, according to Colin Lawrence, mortgage development manager at Vancity.

"We made a decision to support laneway homes as a way to make home ownership more affordable and also to build the city's rental stock," Lawrence said.

Lawrence has worked on financing about 20 laneway homes and says demand is growing as people are starting to catch on to the idea. He cautioned families to obtain independent legal advice if their intention is to share ownership, so that everyone is protected.

The next generation can finance themselves and pay the mortgage, Lyons said, adding right now a laneway house adds about $300,000 to the value of a property.

For homeowners looking for rental income, a laneway home would also be a good investment.

The mortgage on $250,000 would cost about $1,200 a month, Lyons said, but laneway homes can rent for as much as $2,000 a month on the west side, or $1,700 a month on the east side.

"Basement suites are renting for $1,600 or $1,700 a month for a two bedroom on the west side of Vancouver," he said. "It's not surprising a detached house - where you don't have to live below someone with their kids running around or playing piano above your head - would rent for more.

"You have lots of light, you have two floors and you have two bathrooms. It's going to be valuable."

Additional costs are property taxes, which will add about $25 per month, and insurance which could also tack on about $25 per month.

Lyons said laneway houses are freeing rental suites because often the people who live in a laneway house would otherwise be renting.

"This allows people to live closer to where they work, play and go to school. It also provides more rental units in a city that is very short on rental houses," Lyons said. "People are [becoming accustomed] to seeing these in their neighbourhood. People see them and think, 'That would be really good for us.' "

Local homes sales are at their lowest levels for the month of April since 2001, according to a monthly report released Wednesday by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

A local real estate analyst said the April numbers are consistent with a longer-term trend of slowing sales, and that a market correction might be underway.

"This is certainly consistent with a correction," said Tsur Somerville, director, centre for urban economics and real estate, Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C. "The first place you'd see that is in falling sales."

Somerville noted that for seven consecutive months - since October 2011 - sales have dropped compared to the same month a year before, and that the size of the drop has steadily increased.

"It's a clear indication of a significantly weakening market on the sales side. But there's no clear economic reason. It's not like interest rates are going up dramatically or the economy has slowed dramatically.

"People just seem less willing to pay the prices now than they were eight to nine months ago."

The benchmark price for all residential properties in April was $683,800, up 3.7 per cent from April 2011.

According to the REBGV report, the market is in a balanced state.

"Although April sales were below what's typical for the month, we continue to see, with a sales-to-active listing ratio of nearly 17 per cent, a balanced relationship between buyer demand and seller supply in our marketplace," said REBGV president Eugen Klein in a statement.

However, the report noted that Metro Vancouver sales totalled 2,799 in April, a 13.2-per-cent decline com-pared to the 3,225 sales in April 2011 and a decline of 2.6 per cent compared to the 2,874 sales in March 2012.

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties totalled 6,056 in April, a 3.6-per-cent increase compared to both March 2012 when 5,843 homes were listed and April 2011 when 5,847 homes were listed for sale.

At 16,538, the total number of homes listed for sale increased 8.5 per cent in April compared to last month and 16 per cent above this time last year.

Meanwhile, the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board said there were 1,435 sales in April, down five per cent from April 2011, but up slightly from 1,412 sales in March.

In April, the board added seven per cent more new listings compared to one year ago, up to 3,134 from 2,918, pushing the number of properties for sale to 10,312, the highest since July 2010.

The benchmark price for a detached Fraser Valley home rose 5.3 per cent in the year to $576,600 last month.

Much of the effort that is being expended to try to conquer the housing affordability challenge in Metro Vancouver is focused on assisting buyers or renters in one way or another, or on providing more subsidized housing in different forms. Mean-while, not enough effort is focused on lowering costs of traditional market housing.

Perhaps we should be looking for ways to lower the cost of housing to the consumer by identifying ways to plan, design, approve, permit, engineer, construct and market housing differently.

A good place to start would be to look at the time that it takes to deliver new housing to the market.

The majority of housing buildings in Metro Vancouver today is multi-family housing - condominium apartments, townhouses and forms of housing other than the detached single-family home. I know from experience that in most jurisdictions in Metro Vancouver, it can take more than twice as long to plan, design and obtain the necessary land use and construction approvals for new multi-family housing than it takes to construct that housing.

That means it can take as long as four and a half years from the time a parcel of land for a new multi-family development project is identified and acquired by a developer until the day when the new homeowner moves in, especially where the property has to be rezoned and the building is a concrete structure. Where the zoning is already in place, a new townhouse development or wood-frame condominium apartment development might be able to be completed in just over half that time, from the time the property is first identified. But we're still talking about an awfully long time.

A lot can change in three to four years. Remember the meltdown in the global economy that happened less than four years ago? Change and the uncertainty that comes with pro-longed time periods means risk. To compensate for risk, those who risk their money whether they be the developers who risk their personal and corporate equity or the lenders who finance new developments with debt, all need to be paid a reward or return.

Without a return that matches the risk and uncertainty, no one would make capital available for new housing projects. To understand that time is money, consider that for every month that passes, it costs around $2,500 just in normal bank interest for every $500,000 a developer risks while waiting for a project to be approved.

When the average home price is well in excess of $500,000, these costs add up quickly.

These costs - a significant cost component of new housing - can be mitigated with shorter time periods during which capital is at risk.

Homes can also be built faster if innovative construction practices are used, such as pre-fabricating components, sections and even entire buildings in a controlled environment. We haven't seen a lot of factory-built housing in this part of the world, but perhaps it is time we explored this alternative to building on-site.

That means changing and adapting building codes and other regulations, as well as changing construction practices. Not only can pre-fabricated housing reduce construction time, it can also mean better quality control and less construction waste, both of which make home building more cost-efficient.

Changing building technology can mean reducing costs, but it can also mean increasing the cost of building a home. While construction methods have been slow to change over the last half century, new technology has emerged in energy systems in particular that promise efficiencies in long-term operating costs and reduced environmental impacts. It makes total sense to embrace these new techno-logical innovations if they are proven to be cost effective.

But the new costs associated with incorporating new technology in a home needs to be accurately weighed against all of the benefits. We have to be cautious about not trying to use the home as a showcase for technology when the real purpose of the home is to provide shelter. New technology makes sense if it can be deployed efficiently and cost-effectively short term and long term.

Not a lot has changed in the way we market housing over recent decades and there is also room for innovation in this cost centre, as well.

Social media and other digital technology are just starting to shape the real estate marketing industry. There will always be a concern that purchasers must be protected in making a transaction as big as buying a new home, therefore there will likely always be a role for a professional intermediary.

Nonetheless, it is worth exploring how far technology and other innovations can go in connecting buyers to sellers and reducing marketing costs. These costs can amount to as much as five or six per cent of the cost of a new home.

This is not a small amount when we are considering homes that sell in excess of $1 million.

What are some of the other areas where savings can be achieved in sup-plying new housing? I welcome your ideas. Housing affordability depends as much on costs as it does on other factors

Concerned over the activities of the country's dominant mortgage insurer, the federal government is set to announce how it will toughen the over-sight of the massive and economically vital organization.

In late March, the federal budget took aim at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the Crown corporation that controls about 75 per cent of the mortgage-default insurance market. In Thursday's budget implementation bill, the government will say how this over-sight will change.

CMHC currently falls under the jurisdiction of the minister responsible for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. But Ottawa has been examining putting the Crown insurer under direct supervision of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions - a powerful financial regulator with the power to enforce a broad range of changes. CMHC is backstopped by the federal government but is coming close to breaching its mandated insurance limit of $600 billion because of the red-hot housing market and so-called portfolio insurance for the banks.

It's this portfolio insurance - also dubbed "bulk insurance" and often referred to as "commercial activities" by the government - that the Finance Minister is most concerned about.

The government said Tues-day it plans to introduce a law "to implement certain provisions of the budget," according to a document known as the Notice Paper. Under parliamentary rules, the legislation can be introduced in the House of Commons as early as Thursday.

While speaking to reporters in February, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty criticized the extent to which this commercial function of the CMHC had commandeered its lending capacity and core function.

"The issue that pushes them near their lending limit is the desire of some of the financial institutions to purchase port-folio insurance for their low-ratio mortgages," Flaherty said.

"That's not the way most people usually think of CMHC."

Just three years ago, CMHC had $450 billion in loans it was backstopping and had to go to the government to get that increased to $600 billion.

The budget document itself provided few details about what action would take place, but suggested the government was concerned about the Crown corporation's dealings with the banks and how it could affect the broader economy.

"The government will pro-pose legislative amendments to strengthen oversight of CMHC and to ensure its commercial activities are managed in a manner that promotes the stability of the financial system," the budget said.

April 26

Justice

PNE Forum, 8 p.m.The Grammy-nominated French electronica duo was one of the first acts to incorporate pummelling rock motifs into electro-house music, creating a new sonic landscape. The pair’s second album Audio, Video, Disco, pays homage to ’70s-era prog rock.

April 26

Judy Radul

Catriona Jeffries Gallery, opens 7 to 9 p.m; to June 9

Vancouver-based Judy Radul’s art has evolved from “live” performance to installations that examine the parameters of the “live” situation. Her latest works also explore ways technology increasingly functions in ways akin to human perception.

April 26

Matthew Monahan

April 27; opens 7 to 10 p.m.; to July 1

The L.A. art star’s recent sculptures evoke a futuristic archeology; they are strange yet familiar works that draw from myriad influences, from Modernist art to ancient totems. This career-spanning show is Monahan’s first Canadian solo show.

April 26

Yellow Signal: New Media in China

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, opens 8 to 10 p.m., to Aug. 19.

Gage the current political situation in China by way of acclaimed contemporary Chinese artists Geng Jianyi, Huang Ran, and Zhang Peili, whose exhibition is part of a city-wide, largest-ever in Canada, showcase of Chinese multi-media and video art.

April 27

West Coast Tattoo and Culture Show

Boulevard Casino, to April 29

The three-day show features 125 international tattoo artists, among them reality-TV stars Chris Nunez of Ink Masters, and Billy DeCola, of New York Ink. Just be aware of 10 Tattoos to Avoid (according to the viral online list), including No. 1 and No. 2 no-no’s: face X-ray and connect-the-dots tattoos.

April 27

Yukon Blonde

Commodore Ballroom, 9:30 pm

The Vancouver scruf-rock outfit returns home from a 30-date North American tour celebrating its vibrant new album Tiger Talk. Just a few own-bed sleeps though; the band spends May touring the West Coast and Europe. Opening this show are Vancouver folk-rockers Sun Wizard and the Saskatchewan pop septet Library Voices (whose fans include staff at The New Yorker and Spin).

April 27

Tennis

Biltmore Cabaret, doors 8 p.m.

The Denver husband-and-wife pop group Tennis perform songs from its beautiful new album Young & Old. Phil Collins and Fleetwood Mac, as well as contemporary bands Chairlift, Real Estate and Spiritualized, are counted among the group’s influences.

April 28

Da Vinci: The Genius

Telus Science World, until Sept. 3

The most comprehensive exhibition ever compiled on the works on Leonardo da Vinci sprawls over 10,000 square feet of Science World’s renovated space. The show features full-scale machine inventions crafted from his personal notebooks, sketches, and reproductions of his art, including the Mona Lisa and a 3-D Last Supper.

April 28

Domingo Ortega Flamenco Company

Kay Meek Centre, 8 pm

Directed by the dancer Domingo Ortega, this company is one of Spain’s most successful touring groups, having performed all over the world, and now four shows in Canada. One of the three fiery dancers is Iranian-born Delara Tiv, who lives in West Vancouver. The outstanding musicians include two singers and two guitarists.

April 28

Aida

Vogue Theatre, 8 p.m. (also Thursday, May 1 and May 3)

Opening last week to a lengthy standing ovation, Vancouver Opera stages the grand opera with total elan. Russian-born soprano Mlada Khudoley is particularly exciting as Aida, the Ethipian prisoner (and secret princess) in Verdi’s epic tale of doomed love.

April 29

International Dance Day

Scotiabank Dance Centre, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Take in a world of dance for free as the Dance Centre invites all to get in the groove with contemporary dance showcases by Contingency Plan, Kinesis and In Modus Operandi, workshops on the pow-wow and flamenco dance, open classes, talks, and more.

April 29

VanDusen Garden Plant Sale

VanDusen Botantical Garden, 10 to 4 p.m.

VanDusen’s massive sale attracts 10,000 garden enthusiast who snap up more than 40,000 plants in six hours of frenzied buying. The theme this year is Small Space Gardens with an emphasis on suitable container plants for apartment- and townhouse-dwelling greenthumbs.

April 29

B.C. Place Community Open House

Enter at Gate A, 12 to 4 p.m.

Athletes, make fantasy reality: Kick balls with the Whitecaps, throw passes to the BC Lions during this weekend’s free community event. Then hit the ’Caps and BC Lions dressing rooms and some of the new suites, where fans would cheer you on.

April 30

Snow Patrol

Orpheum Theatre

This show is sold-out but is it entirely due to sweet-sounding mega-rockers Snow Patrol? The Irish band’s opening act, the 21-year-old hip-hop-folkie Ed Sheeran, certainly has pull with young fans, even though his debut album, + (pronounced Plus), doesn’t drop here until June. The album, a huge hit in England, earned two Brit Awards in February.

May 1

Opeth and Mastodon

Orpheum Theatre, 7 pm

It’s metalhead heaven as two of the world’s most potent acts take over the VSO’s usual venue. Swedish prog-metal favourites Opeth and Atlanta powerhouse Mastodon are both renowned for unique instrumentation and for crossing multiple heavy metal genres such as sludge metal, stoner metal and groove-metal.

May 1

Big Wreck

Commodore Ballroom 9:30 pm; also Wednesday

Reuniting after an eight-year fall-out, the Toronto-based bluesy-rock band has just released the epic, Rush/Zeppelin-inspired Albatross. Tuesday’s show is sold out.

May 2

Chris Botti With the VSO

Orpheum Theatre, 8 pm

The last time the world’s top-selling jazz instrumentalist performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra the sold-out show had the audience leaping to its feet for multiple standing ovations. Now the uniquely expressive trumpeter returns to perform songs from his new album Impressions, which includes standards, as well as an opening track by Chopin.

May 3

Said the Whale

Vogue Theatre 8 pm

Said the Whale’s coronation as New Group of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards followed a second-place finish in the Peak Performance Project, which won the Vancouver rockers $75,000. Their first trip to the SXSW was documented for a CBC television special. Busy band. No wonder it’s take so long to drop the new album, Little Mountain.

 

May 3

Vancouver International Burlesque Festival

Rio Theatre, Vogue, Biltmore to May 6

Reigning queens and kinds of the burlesque scene titilate with wild tassel-twirling techniques, irreverent surprises, and naughty acts. With headliners Miss Indigo Blue, Jett Adore, Judith Stein, and Tiffany Carter.

Ahead:

EPIC Vancouver

May 11-13

Immerse yourself in a vast market place of planet-loving goodness. Everything pitched by the 300 exhibitors—from coffee to cars, furniture to wine—is crafted or grown sustainably, by people willing to share their knowledge. The annual expo features inspiring speakers, like Adriane Carr, co-founder of the Green Party of BC; the EPICurean Corner, with samples galore from BC restaurants and wineries, and eco-fashion shows.

OTTAWA — Homes prices edged down 0.2 per cent in February from the month before but were still 6.1 per cent higher than a year ago, according to a well-watched housing index.

 

The month-over-month decline was the third such retreat in the past four months for the Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index, released Wednesday, which measures price changes for repeat sales of single-family homes.

 

In January, prices rose 0.1 per cent.

 

Teranet's report showed prices falling from the previous month in six of the 11 metropolitan markets surveyed.

 

In Canada's two hottest real-estate markets, prices in Vancouver fell 0.3 per cent, the fifth consecutive decline, while prices in Toronto rose by just 0.1 per cent. On a yearly basis, however, Toronto prices were 10 per cent higher.

 

Nationally, prices were 6.1 per cent higher than a year ago. In January, prices were 6.5 per cent higher.

 

The data is likely to show up on the radar of Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, who has repeatedly warned that Canadians are piling on too much debt as they buy homes whose prices keep rising.

 

At a House of Commons finance committee meeting Tuesday, Carney warned that house prices in relation to income levels are now running 35 per cent above historical norms.

 

Last week, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported that seasonally adjusted sales in March rose 1.6 per cent from year-earlier levels, although the national average home price declined 0.5 per cent to to $369,677.

 

"It is a fact that according to CREA (the Canadian Real Estate Association) data for March, five of the 11 markets covered were rather favourable to sellers (Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Halifax and Quebec City). Overall, the Canadian market is nevertheless balanced," said National Bank senior economist Marc Pinsonneault.

There is a fine Chinese saying: The best time to invest in real estate was five years ago.

The second best time? Now! That has been true, particularly in Vancouver, for 50 years.

In real estate investment - the only time to act is now. Always.

Most of the questions I get these days are on the following subjects:

"Is this still a good market?"

"Should I wait till it crashes?"

"Is the boom over?"

"Can I write a low offer in today's market?"

In 38 years of experience, I have never seen the "great deal of a lifetime" advertised (or if I did, it turned out it wasn't).

I have never seen a realtor who really liked lowball offers, including myself.

I have never read in the paper that "this is without doubt the best market ever," when it really was. I also have never subscribed to the theory that one should defer actions to a better day.

There are no perfect markets, no perfect situations, and no 167 secrets to make that great buy. You are not buying a market, you are buying a well-researched home for your family or an investment you intend to keep for years.

In fact, often the best deals come in slower markets.

What matters are the actions that you take:

. Identify your goals. Do you want to resell at a profit? Do you want to create a passive stream of income?

. Look at the market cycle - at a high? At a low?

. Understand that timing is more important than location.

. Identify the kind of property you'd like to own.

. Identify a neighbourhood that has those properties in it.

. Look at everything that is for sale there.

. Look at everything that sold there.

. Look at all the price reductions.

. Look at all the 'by owner' sales.

. Get on the ace condo marketers' lists.

. Keep reading and learning.

. Keep doing it till you find a deal.

All the deals are not gone; they are still there waiting to be found, looked over and - most of all - created. As investors, we must look for cash-flowing properties in B.C., low down payments, good 'employment' areas, a good base of tenants. That means that if we want certainty of return and low risk we need to find cash flow properties that are priced under $150,000. And yes, these deals are still every-where in B.C. - from Port Hardy (3 bedroom, 3 baths fixed upper - $55,900), to Kimberley (ski condo $72,900), to Nanaimo (four-plex for $489,000).

Of course, what investing in real estate really needs is - work! It takes work to find the deals, and work to get your investment-oriented realtors, qualified mortgage brokers, bankers and home inspectors lined up.

All good deals are created and negotiated. So, storm the net, hit hard, and keep shooting on the net. Don't ice that puck.

Ozzie Jurock is a senior real estate adviser and the publisher of Jurock's Real Estate Insider. He can be reached by at oz@ jurock.com or www.jurock.com

Working with a real estate conveyance lawyer or a notary public is necessary to close all real estate deals in British Columbia.

Vancouver lawyer Gail Davies has been doing real estate con-veyancing for more than 25 years, and it makes up about 65 per cent of her practice.

She says it's difficult for many first-time homebuyers to choose a lawyer or notary, and often they choose based on price, which can vary depending on the services that are included.

"How are you going to decide who to go with on the largest purchase of your life? It's very hard for a first-time homebuyer to decide what's the best deal," Davies said. "I think most people go by the sound of the voice on the other end of the phone and who you feel comfortable doing business with."

She says real estate conveyanc-ing is quite competitive in Vancouver, so people should make sure they are comparing the same services if they are going by price alone. Davies said she charges $1,158 including HST for a real estate conveyance for a home under $1 million.

Davies said first-time home-buyers need more legal information than repeat customers.

"I can do a conveyance in half an hour with a repeat buyer, but that would take at least an hour and a half with a first-time buyer, depending on the number of questions they have," Davies said.

The lawyer's role includes witnessing signatures, preparing the documents for the buyer and the seller, doing title searches on the property, pre-paring the title certificate, handling the transfer of funds, closing arrangements and other tasks.

Davies said that after 25 years in the business she still comes across new problems regularly.

"There's a million different problems that can go wrong, although most conveyances are cut and dried," Davies said. "I always think, 'Okay I've seen everything now and then something else comes along.'"

On one deal Davies was recently involved with, a per-son whose offer on the property had not been accepted, placed a caveat on the property's title.

"He felt that the realtors had misled him, and he had an axe to grind," Davies said. "[A caveat] freezes the property for 30 days and gives you the opportunity to start a lawsuit. If you don't start a lawsuit, the caveat falls off.

"It was basically a four-month process before we could deal with this property."

Another example of a problem that can crop up is an unexpected builder's lien on a property, Davies said.

"Maybe the seller had some work done to get the property ready for selling, and was planning to pay for it out of the sale proceeds, and suddenly there's a lien on the title."

Davies has a summary of the buying process on her website: www.llglaw.ca.

Saving money for a down payment, especially in British Columbia’s high-priced housing markets, is one of the biggest challenges that homeowners face, but mortgage experts say, it’s not impossible.

The minimum down payment new homeowners need is five per cent of a home’s purchase price, which can be particularly difficult to accumulate for those in the most need: young people, often with student debt and lifestyles that involve a lot of restaurant meals and going to movies once or twice a week.

“There are options,” said Chris Pughe, a mortgage broker with Verico Complete Mortgage Services.

For starters, there’s always Mom and Pop to help you on your way — Pughe said gifts from family members are one alternative.

She added buyers can borrow the down payment through a line of credit, personal loan or possibly cash advances against a credit card.

The caveat, she said, is the buyer would have to be able to afford to service the mortgage debt, pay property taxes and heating costs plus an additional payment on the borrowed funds.

As well, first-time buyers can tap into their RRSPs — an option not available to investors — as a way to get the necessary cash in hand.

Pughe said this is a popular option. Borrowers can withdraw up to $25,000 from their RRSP under the federal Home Buyers’ Plan without any tax being withheld, noting that it’s not just for first-time buyers.

“It’s as long as you haven’t been on title to anything for the last five years,” she said. “If it’s you and your spouse, it’s $50,000.

“But you have to repay it [in yearly instalments] into your RRSP over 15 years. If not, you pay tax on it.”

Pughe noted that purchasers can borrow money for the RRSP and get the tax saving for a down payment the same year, provided it stays as an RRSP for 90 days.

The provincial government’s new bonus for first-time buyers of new homes, which is a one-time refundable personal tax credit equal to five per cent of the purchase price of a home to a maximum of $10,000, can also be used to help with a down payment.

Pughe said some lenders have a cashback option that can be used against a down payment. “The clients have to take posted rates [not discounted] and some lenders will give you five per cent of the mortgage amount as cash back. On $400,000 that would be $20,000, the five-per-cent down payment that is required.”

However, she recommends against that option because borrowing costs are much higher than discounted rates.

One thing worth remembering, Pughe said, is that if clients have less than 20 per cent as a down payment, they have to prove that they have the five-per-cent down payment plus 1.5 per cent in closing costs.

Meanwhile, Ryan McKinley, mortgage development manager at Vancity in Vancouver, said “it would be nice to have a magic bullet,” but that the classic approach to saving up the down payment can “definitely be a challenge.”

McKinley believes one approach could be to set up an automatic transfer into a high interest savings account every month or every paycheque to save for a deposit.

Regarding parental help, McKinley said parents can use their own savings, investments or potentially the equity in their own home to help a child with a down payment.

They could also co-purchase a home with their children, he said, allowing the child “to get into the market, while concurrently being an investment for the parents.”