The Vancouver residential market’s prices, sales, and supply all suffered notable annual declines in February, according to the latest numbers from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
Benchmark prices across all housing types decreased by 6.1% year-over-year in February, down to $1,016,600.
Single-detached properties experienced the greatest fall at 9.7%, reaching an average of $1,443,100. Condominium prices had a more modest 4% drop to $660,300, and townhomes by 3.3% to end up at $789,300.
Housing sales volume had a massive 32.8% annual shrinkage last month, settling down at levels 42.5% lower than the 10-year sales average for February, BNN Bloomberg reported.
Detached homes had 28% fewer sales in February compared to the same time last year, while apartment activity slowed down by almost 36% during that time frame. Meanwhile, the townhome sector had a nearly 31% decrease.
The number of new homes that entered the market fell by 7.8% year-over-year, with the sales-to-active listings ratio ending up at 12.8%.
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The Conference Board of Canada warned in its recent market outlook that the Vancouver housing sector’s sluggishness will be a major factor in the province’s economy, although fortunately not to the pint of recession.
B.C.’s real GDP growth is predicted to contract from 2.6% in 2018 to 2.5% this year, and further down to 2.4% in 2020 “despite ongoing megaprojects in the energy sector.”
These figures are markedly lower than the 3.2% growth average that B.C. enjoyed from 2014 to 2017 – a boom period that stemmed from sustained high demand for real estate.
This hunger significantly dialled down after the introduction of much stricter mortgage qualification rules at the beginning of 2018, the Board stated.
Ephraim is currently a journalist at Mortgage Broker News, Real Estate Professional and Canadian Real Estate Wealth.
Ephraim is a highly accomplished news reporter whose work has been published across North America and the Asia Pacific region. Before joining Key Media, Ephraim spent eight years working as a journalist with Reuters TV. His areas of expertise include real estate, mortgage, and finance.
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