Vancouver real estate sales fall but prices only inch downwards + MORE Jan 4th

It’s inevitable. As we age, our bodies and our brains change, and not always like fine wine. Cognitive skills decline as part of the normal aging process and in turn, so do some of our financial management skills.
Research shows that financial decision-making peaks around age 53, and by age 60 our ability to process new information starts to slow. The shift happens at a different pace for everyone, and it can be accelerated by medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. While some people are capable of managing their own finances throughout their lifetime, others may find their skills suffering.
The impact could be as benign as paying a utility bill twice, or something worse, like falling prey to a scam.
Experts say there are signs that children or spouses can watch out for that will help them know when it’s time to step in and help an older relative with their finances.
“This will probably happen to someone you love or to you,” said Bill Hensley, director of education at the National Endowment for Financial Education…

VANCOUVER _ Home sales in Metro Vancouver dropped by 5.6 per cent in 2016, the city’s real estate board said Wednesday, wrapping up a tumultuous year in one of the country’s most watched housing markets.
The composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver, as measured by the Multiple Listing Service home price index, fell to $897,600 in December. That’s a 17.8 per cent slide from the same month the previous year.
“It was an eventful year for real estate in Metro Vancouver,” board president Dan Morrison said in a statement.
“Escalating prices caused by low supply and strong homebuyer demand brought more attention to the market than ever before.”
Residential property sales in the city started the year off strong, sometimes hitting record highs. But partway through the year the market started to cool, with sales and eventually prices declining.
The cooling came as a number of measures were implemented in an effort to address home affordability concerns in Vancouver, including a 15 per cent tax for foreign buyers and a tax on homes left vacant…

Another year passes and, once again, we can check off another record-breaking year for real estate in Canada. This time, however, the headlines weren’t just about bidding wars and astronomical house prices; this time the headlines also announced new mortgage regulations, extended down payment rules and new taxes. So, just how accurate was our real estate market overview for 2016? Here’s what we expected and here’s what happened:
No. 1: A tale of three markets ✓
We anticipated that the two hot real estate markets in Canada—the Greater Toronto and Vancouver areas—would remain strong, while the rest of Canada would experience only modest prices increases (if any at all). For the most part this was true. According to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association, the Greater Toronto Area continued to rise in price, as did the Victoria, B.C. area. The Greater Vancouver Area, however, started to see price declines, while oil dependent Alberta also started to see some price appreciation (signalling that the real estate market in this province is now past it’s the oil-slump pricing and in balanced market territory)…

The number of homes being sold in Greater Vancouver continues to fall dramatically from last year’s highs, according to the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board, but prices are only inching down.

HSBC Bank Canada CEO Sandra Stuart. (Portrait by Carlo Ricci)
Sandra Stuart started out as a part-time teller working Saturdays at an HSBC branch in Burnaby, B.C., in 1982. She rose up the ranks of the organization, working in Toronto, Brazil and the U.S., before returning to Vancouver to become chief operating officer of HSBC Bank Canada in 2010, then president and CEO in 2015. Canada’s seventh-largest—and largest foreign-owned—bank, with more than $90 billion in assets and $2 billion in annual revenue, the company under her watch has become an exemplar of gender diversity, with equal numbers of men and women on the board and in senior management.

HSBC Canada has achieved gender parity within senior management and on the board. How did that come about?
.cbR{box-sizing:border-box;display:block;width:100%;margin:1em 0;border:1px solid #bbb;padding:.5em}@media (min-width:480px){.cbR{width:250px;margin:0 0 1em 1em;float:right}}How Jennifer Reynolds is working to get women to return to finance jobs
I can’t speak for the [HSBC] network at large but I can tell you it was certainly a very active conversation here at HSBC Bank Canada…