Happy Thanksgiving! I hope this forthcoming weekend brings you together with friends and family to reflect on all we have to be thankful for...

For a start if you are fortunate enough to be living on Vancouver's North Shore you can be thankful you live in Metro Vancouver's "Happiest Place"... yes, according to the Vancouver Foundation's latest vitality report card, 37 per cent of North Shore respondents say the quality of life is excellent here. That's nice!

But... living in a happy place does have it's costs. The Real Estate Board news release and statistics package for September 2010 indicates the benchmark price for a single family home in Greater Vancouver rose 0.1% over August and accumulated 5.5% in value over the past 12 months. The benchmark price now sits at $577,174.

These regional trends mirror what we are seeing on the North Shore with fewer homes coming on the market and the volume of summer listings now expiring. This shrinking inventory level coupled with the trend...