From the Globe and Mail, by Rob Carrick

What it means to be a renter was summed up by a carpet cleaner who came to our home several years ago. “Oh,” he said when my wife declined the deluxe treatment, “you must be renting.”

Renters are slackers, the conventional thinking goes. If they had any brains and ambition, they’d own a house.

Today, in some parts of the country, just the opposite is true. Smart people are renting instead of owning.

Renting doesn’t have to be a permanent choice...

Did you know the Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP) is available only to first-time home buyers and a few others?

This federal government program, established in 1992, lets a qualifying first-time home buyer use up to $25,000 from their RRSPs tax-free as a downpayment. Couples can use up to $50,000.

To qualify, the home buyer must:

• not have owned a home within the past five years;

• use the home as their primary residence; and

• repay their RRSP within 15 years with minimum annual payments of 1/15th...

Home sales remained at typical springtime levels on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Greater Vancouver in May.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales of detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver reached 3,377 in May 2011, a 7 per cent increase compared to the 3,156 sales in May 2010 and a 4.7 per cent increase compared to the 3,225 sales in April 2011.

Looking back further, last month’s residential sales are 8.1...

Below are market statistics for the end of May.  They are broken down by detached properties (houses) and attached (townhouses and condos – stratas, basically).  I show the number of all active listings, the new listings within the month, the number of units sold, and the average sale price.  These stats are trended on the graphs and represented on charts relative to the preceding month and the same month in the previous year.

Detached (houses)

* absorption rate...