4 ms·

I've noticed this annecdotally when trying to buy a home on separate occasions in the New York and LA metro areas. I'm not sure it's foreign capital, but the m

I've noticed this annecdotally when trying to buy a home on separate occasions in the New York and LA metro areas. I'm not sure it's foreign capital, but the majority of winning bids were all cash offers above the asking price. I'd love to see a retrospective analysis on Vancouver's protective measures to see if they did actually help, or if buyers found loopholes, or it wasn't Chinese buyers to begin with.

jedberg 8y ago
I wish I could find the link now, but someone did a study on Vancouver and found that the tax had no effect on housing prices. The foreign buyers simply added it as another cost of parking their money outside of their country (usually China) and the math still worked in their favor. It brought in some extra money to Vancouver though.
ttul 8y 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.
- Jack000 8y ago
  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.
  - ttul 8y ago
    The drops are starting to happen lower down as well. The market stall is across the board.
- lazyasciiart 8y ago
  Seattle's housing market has stalled too, with no tax introduced.
avip 8y ago
Not an "analysis", but here's the last (?) HN discussion on Vancouver's housing market https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608918

jedberg 8y ago

I wish I could find the link now, but someone did a study on Vancouver and found that the tax had no effect on housing prices. The foreign buyers simply added it as another cost of parking their money outside of their country (usually China) and the math still worked in their favor. It brought in some extra money to Vancouver though.

ttul 8y 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.

Jack000 8y ago
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.
- ttul 8y ago
  The drops are starting to happen lower down as well. The market stall is across the board.
lazyasciiart 8y ago
Seattle's housing market has stalled too, with no tax introduced.

avip 8y ago

Not an "analysis", but here's the last (?) HN discussion on Vancouver's housing market https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608918