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http://www.lisagibson.net/ | I got into a big debate with my best friend last night about the effects of the Olympics on Vancouver real estate. She moved in very affluent, New York circles where her friends do buy homes spontaneously when they travel. So I decided to approach this debate from a numbers game. Currently, there are approx. 3,000 listings in Vancouver proper (not including suburbs). To impact the housing market, I suspect there would have to be a least a 20% decrease in supply. This equates to over 600 properties sold, only from visitors of the Olympics. Is this realistic? This is the determining question. Don't get me wrong, I do believe we will see an active spring market, but not from the Olympics. Rather, it will be buoyed up by the increased economic stability over last year; a spring season which is always a busy time in real estate; government imposed restrictions on lending which will come into effect in mid-April; and a fear that mortgage rates will start to increase sometime in the next 18 months. Only time will tell.