I was listening to the Bill Good show on CKNW a few weeks ago and he was talking about the Real estate market in the lower mainland.  The Real estate board of Greater Vancouver had just release its Summer market statistics showing that sales volume was up over 40% from last Summer. He opened up the phone board and as always many people phoned in saying they thought the price of Vancouver homes had been rising at an unsustainable pace over the past 15 years. Now don't get me wrong Vancouver is far from cheap! However when you look at what the price RE has done over the past 15 years you would realize we've had some dramatic price increases followed by some declines mixed in with prices treading water for awhile. I often wonder what some of these callers expected the price of a home to do over the past 15 years? I always tell my clients that you can expect the price of a detached home in Vancouver or Richmond to double every 15 years on average. The price of RE has averaged about a 7 -8% annualized rate when taken over a 20 to 25 year horizon, that's a normal growth rate. Real Estate prices should always be looked at over a long term horizon. There are always going to be sharp increases and decreases mixed in. Actually when you compare the price gains of RE vs. an investment in a blue chip stock like Coke , McDonalds Wal-Mart, J&J P&G over the past 20 years you might be surprised to know the value of most Dividend paying blue chips is up over 500% in that time. That’s far greater than the price of Vancouver Real Estate. Funny how you don't hear many call in shows complaining about dramatic increase and return of Coca-Cola shares.