Holding the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver doesn’t guarantee that there will be an increase in local prices of houses.  According to a new study, there was no evidence of an increase in housing markets and the prices of houses in cities where the Olympic Games were held.  House prices remain the same before, during and after the games.

The study analyzed house prices in LA, Atlanta and Sydney where the Summer Olympics were held and Calgary, Salt Lake City and Vancouver for the Winter Games.  The study was done in order to measure the economic and real estate benefits of the Olympics in terms of employment opportunities, wages, and local business earnings.

The study says that there is no consistent evidence in an increase or decline of housing prices or an effect on the housing market during the announcement period up until the games end.

In fact, even without the Olympic Games, houses in Vancouver are already unaffordable.  Vancouver is the most unaffordable of the 28 housing markets in Canada and the most unaffordable of the 272 markets ranked in Ireland, UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.