Muir sees affordability problems leading to balance.

Reductimat just gave me the heads up on this story: The B.C. Real Estate Association is seeing lower home sales and more inventory going into this spring and they predict this trend will go on due to affordability problems cutting into demand from first time buyers.

The Association's Chief Economist Cameron Muir says BC housing starts will likely drop 7% this year and a further 6% in 2008. He says the BC market is starting to return to more balanced conditions, and the demand for housing has dropped a bit.

Muir says that's good news for some home buyer's deep pockets because there's more inventory to choose from, and less sales pressure to put a bid on a home right away.

Theres a bit more detail in this story in the Sun where there's no prediction of lower prices, just less demand and more supply.. clearly they've studied some esoteric economics courses that I'm not familiar with.