Who is buying homes in Vancouver

From yattermatters:

Each month the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board asks Vancouver Realtors® to respond to a survey. The survey is restricted to members who have made at least one sale in the preceding 30-day period.

Questions asked:

How would you best describe your most recent buyer(s)?

• First Time Buyers
• Moving from one property to a similar property
• Moving from a condo to a townhouse
• Moving from a condo OR townhouse to a detached
• Moving from a townhouse OR detached to a condo
• Moving from a detached house to a townhouse
• Moving from a detached house to a condo
• Moving into a retirement home
• Local/Domestic investor
• Foreign Investor

How did the buyer(s) finance their purchase?

• All cash
• Conventional mortgage (25% or more downpayment)
• High ratio mortgage (less than 25% downpayment)

Describe the buyer(s)

• Single male
• Single female
• Young couple with no children
• Family with children
• Empty nesters
• Retired
• Other

Where did the buyer(s) move from?

• Already lived in the same community
• Moved within the REBGV area
• Moved from the Fraser Valley Board area
• Moved from an area of BC outside the Lower Mainland
• Moved from outside BC, but still within Canada
• Moved from outside Canada

In your market area, are you seeing:

• More traffic at open houses?
• Deals collapsing due to financing?
• More multiple offers?

Check out Larry's blog for the data. We should remember that this is a survey so is prone to the usual survey errors, along with potential for uneven distribution of respondents to the actual buyer distribution -- think the 80-20 rule, where 80% of transactions are done by 20% of the members. Nonetheless the data provide invaluable insight into who the buyers really are and I'll let the numbers speak for themselves.