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It may be coincidental that sales of detached homes in Metro Vancouver dropped by as much as 86 per cent from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15 over the year-earlier period at the same time as the foreign buyers tax came into effect. After all, how many times have we heard that correlation does not imply causation?

The B.C. government says it is too soon to conclude how the real estate market has responded to the 15-per-cent tax introduced Aug. 2. Some analysts say the market peaked in February and has been self-correcting, down 30 per cent in most areas since May, as reported by Business In Vancouver, and heading for a soft landing.

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So, there must be other explanations for the market suddenly falling off a cliff. Perhaps all homebuyers took the first two weeks of August off for vacation. Or perhaps the foreign buyers said to be driving the market all ran out of money at the same time. Or maybe market demand was sated on July 31 and everyone who wanted to buy a house had one. Or could it be that word of mouth got out that Vancouver isn’t so great?