Triple Crown

As the provincial capital,  Victoria's  economic outlook is closely tied to the public administration sector, and strong hiring last year helped spur solid real GDP growth of 2.7 per cent. Fortunately, further public administration job gains are on tap for this year, though the rate of increase will be more moderate. As such, public administration output growth is projected to slow sharply from 6.8 per cent in 2016 to 1.3 per cent in 2017. Nonetheless, the overall economy is forecast to advance at a healthy pace of 2.1 per cent this year, as other industries help pick up the slack.   In particular, several sectors on the services side are poised to post output growth greater than 2 per cent, including wholesale and retail trade, finance, insurance and real estate, personal services, and transportation and warehousing. The personal services and transportation and warehousing industries will both benefit from a strong tourism outlook, driven by healthy flight and cruise traffic as

“The numbers we saw in April are a further indication that the market is gradually moving towards a more balanced state compared to the record setting pace of 2016.” says 2017 Board President Ara Balabanian. A total of 885 properties sold in the Victoria Real Estate Board region this April*, 31.2 per cent fewer than the 1,286 properties sold in April last year. The ten-year average for sales in April is 772 properties. “We are starting to see hints of a more traditional spring market. Local agricultural production has been delayed due to the late spring, and so has the local real estate market,” adds President Balabanian, “More sellers listed their homes for sale over the month of April compared to the month previous.” There were 1,690 active listings for sale on the Victoria Real Estate Board Multiple Listing Service® at the end of April 2017, an increase of 8.6 per cent compared to the month of March, but 34.8 per cent fewer than the 2,594 active listings for sale at t