Bears to the rescue?

Browse through blogs and forums with a local Vancouver focus right now and you'll likely find a lot of skepticism about the current state of real estate prices in Vancouver. How many blogs are there out there now looking at the downside of our market? VHB, (Un)realestate, BC Housing, heck even investment realtor Rob Chipman seems to exhibit some bearish ideas*. Even over at the RealEstateTalks BC forum you don't see much 'vancouver is a great investment' sentiment these days.

There seems to be no shortage of people that think rent/price fundamentals are out of whack, or that the massive supply of new condos completing over the next couple of years will dramatically shift the supply/demand equation. People argue that as Vancouver gets more expensive people will move away to where they can get more for their buck reducing demand, and that if we (god forbid) see any real negative economic impact from the US housing market crash then we could be in for some big losses on real estate investments.

Through it all the common thread is people discussing the future of our real estate market, and that means one thing to me: they are interested in our real estate. And if they are interested that means they would like to buy it. They are our 'reserve tank' of demand.

So will the bears awake from hibernation in the spring and absorb some of the new housing stock? Will they buy some of those stale listings? Are there enough hungry bears out there to counteract all of the factors that hungry bears hold up as proof that our market is unsustainable?

*I'm sure the postings of 'anonymous' and 'boombust' will keep him from ever fully joining the bear army.