“Lucky” house numbers affect local home prices in Vancouver
Posted November 26, 2010 10:26 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A UBC study finds the Chinese preference for certain numbers can add or subtract as much as $10,000 from the selling price of an average $400,000 house.
The study looked at 115,000 sales in the Vancouver area between 2000 and 2005. In neighbourhoods with a higher-than-average Chinese population, houses with addresses ending in the lucky number eight sold for a 2.5 per cent premium while those ending in four (unlucky) sold at a 2.2 per cent discount.
The study was the idea of honours economics student Jeff Huang, who immigrated from Taiwan in 2004. The research team thinks the findings will apply to other cities with high Chinese populations such as Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles.