Member Update May 11, 2020

May 11, 2020

Applications for third CERB period start today 

The third application period for the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB) starts today. If you’ve already applied for CERB, you’ll still need to reapply for this period. 

Click here to reapply. 

CERB, income, and tax 

CERB is considered taxable income and no tax is withheld from the source. That means you’re responsible for estimating the tax liability you owe. 

With the province looking to begin the process of restarting the economy this month, you’ll also need to keep track of your income during this final period.

If you’re no longer eligible, you must pay back the benefit to the federal government for the period when you were earning. If your company was supporting you from the wage subsidy program, you also cannot claim the CERB. 

Click here to learn more. 

Other CERB resources 

What’s working for you? Share your story

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we practice real estate. REALTORS® have been quick to adopt new tools, processes, and best-practices to help serve their clients during this crisis. 

We'd like to hear what you’re doing to help keep your business surviving and thriving. 

Send your tips, advice, and tools to mmoldowan@rebgv.org, and we’ll feature them in future updates. 

Share our stats reports with your clients

Our April stats release and Stats Centre Reports are out now. Share them with your clients to help them understand how the market is reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Through the first week of May, sales are averaging about 60 per day. This is slightly above the daily average we saw in the first week of April. 

The active listings count today (10,094) is also slightly ahead of where it was at this time last month (9,981). 

We’ll release our market update video for April in the coming days – keep your eyes on your inbox.

Home buyers returning to Realtylink.org 

Traffic to Realtylink.org is returning to more historic levels after declining at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic. 

There were 11,992 home hunters visiting the site by the middle of March, a 31.8 per cent decline compared to the 17,576 who visited the site during the first week of March. 

However, since that mid-month decline, Realtylink.org has seen week-over-week improvements. Last week, 15,931 home hunters visited the site. 

Realtylink.org is a publicly available listings search site owned and operated by your Board. It includes members’ listings as well as those for the real estate boards for Fraser Valley, Chilliwack and District, Vancouver Island, and BC Northern.