Watch out, Nanaimo – Vancouverites vying for a piece of the housing market are headed your way, and they’re bringing sky-high real estate prices with them.

“The pricing of Lower Mainland real estate is really skewed just by the numbers coming out of the West, which is driving up the prices in East Vancouver and Burnaby and the whole Mainland,” Todd Shyiak, the vice president of franchise sales and development for Century 21, tells REP. “The further out you get, the more reasonable prices are. I think it’s certainly going to affect the prices in those outlying areas.”

Indeed, the high prices in West Vancouver, where the average cost of a home rose 3.8 per cent to $1.67 million in December, are already impacting surrounding areas. North Vancouver to the east realized a 6.9 per cent increase in house prices, to $692,100 in December. Bowen Island off the western coast of West Vancouver saw house prices rise 5.3 per cent to $589,500 in December.

On the Mainland, the average cost of a house was even higher, rising 6.3 per cent in Burnaby South to $606,900, 6.9 per cent in Vancouver East to $661,300, and 7.8 per cent in Vancouver West, to $868,300.

While moderately priced homes can still be found in the Vancouver area – particularly in the outlying regions of the Lower Mainland – Shyiak says continued foreign investment will impact the market, driving prices even higher.

“[Foreign ownership] is a major factor in the prices being driven up specifically in those areas,” he says. “The people who can afford very expensive homes want to live in specific neighbourhoods and they’re willing to pay those prices.”
 
Are you concerned with the impact of expensive communities on more affordable surrounding neighbourhoods?