A report from the Globe and Mail on Canada. "Vancouver housing prices continue to decline, throwing cold water on the speculative buying activity of recent years. 'Vancouver was overdue for a reality check, and thanks to the perfect storm, it’s here. It’s going down fast and people are so stubborn they won’t admit it’s dropping,' says Vancouver realtor Ian Watt, who provided The Globe and Mail with several recent examples of price drops."

"Realtor Layla Yang says she just sold a house in the Arbutus area for $1-million less than the asking price. The home at 2569 West 22nd Ave. spent 98 days on the market with a listing price of $5.75-million. It sold on Feb. 25 for $4.75-million. She says it’s a good time to buy a $5-million house because that same house used to be valued at $7-million."

"Although houses are seeing the biggest drops, there are drops in the condo market, too. A 620-sq.-ft. one-bedroom unit downtown at 938 Smithe St., on the 14th floor sold for $818,000 in January, 2018. A same size one-bedroom on the 9th floor in the same building sold 11 months later for $650,000."

"On the west side of the city, at 2149 W. 35th Avenue, in Quilchena, someone bought the character house on a large 66-foot-by-130-foot lot in 2014 for $3.15-million. It was listed several times in 2018, as high as $5.188-million. It finally sold in February this year for $2.88-million – lower than the purchase price five years ago, and $1-million less than the assessed value."

"Again, there are many examples. Mr. Watt says it’s a bigger drop than the market saw in 2008 and 2009, with the worldwide economic downturn that only grazed the Vancouver market, causing a minor setback."

"'The only reason Vancouver took off is because of Chinese money and speculation,' Mr. Watt says. 'And a lot of people bought in the last few years expecting to make two, three, four hundred thousand. But now they are losing two, three, four hundred thousand. And they just can’t comprehend it, because Vancouver has never had a loss like this.'"

"'In 2008 people weren’t flipping places to the extent they are now … people are so highly leveraged, because they bought cars, they bought this, they bought that. Now, people will tumble. We are going to see huge changes in Vancouver like we’ve never seen before, he said."

The Vancouver Sun. "Homebuyers appear to be the ones with power in the current market, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. In total, there are currently 11,590 homes listed for sale across Metro Vancouver — an almost 50-per-cent increase compared to a year ago."

"'For much of the past four years, we’ve been in a sellers’ market. Conditions have shifted over the last 12 months to favour buyers, particularly in the detached home market,' said REBGV president Phil Moore."

The Financial Post. "The local real estate board says the benchmark price of a detached home in Metro Vancouver fell nearly 10 per cent year over year as more sellers listed properties, but house hunters continued to take their time in February."

"The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says nearly 28 per cent fewer detached properties sold last month compared with February 2018, and the benchmark price dropped 9.7 per cent to $1,443,100."

"The board says sales for apartments fell nearly 36 per cent in February 2019 compared with the same month in 2018 and townhome sales declined nearly 31 per cent."