Metro Vancouver: Sales Up, Prices Down

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) has confirmed that September 2019 was the third consecutive month where property sales increased in the Metro Vancouver area; this is year over year growth.

So even though average sale prices are still down on the previous year, realtors are reporting September 2019 sales as being 46 percent higher than that of September 2018; the much vaunted Metro Vancouver real estate bounce is holding its own.

The REBGV had this to say via President Ashley Smith:

“We’re seeing more balanced housing market conditions over the last three months compared to what we saw at this time last year…Home buyers are more willing to make offers today, particularly in the townhome and apartment markets.”

Let’s have a look at some of the numbers:

• There were 1595 homes sold in September 2018 and 2333 sold in September 2019

• Sales did increase by 4.6 percent in August 2019, but that’s still 1.7 percentage points below the 10 year average

• As you would expect with increased sales, inventory is up too with around 2.7 percent more homes being listed in September 2019 when compared to September 2018

• Prices are still down as mentioned; the regional benchmark for all homes was $990,600 in September 2019 which is a decrease of around 7.3 percent when comparing with September 2018 and a decrease of 0.3 percent when comparing with August 2019 (i.e. the previous month). Breaking this down further (September 2018 vs September 2019):

  • Detached home prices were down 8.6 percent

  • Apartments were down 6.5 percent

• There are, however, regional variations too:

• Detached homes in the West Side, Tsawwassen, North Burnaby, Coquitlam, West Vancouver and East Vancouver too the biggest hits ranging from 10.8 percent to 9.2 percent. Whistler (9.2 percent), Squamish (5.2 percent) and Bowen Island (0.1 percent) experienced any price growth at all

• Condo price drops were at their worst in West Vancouver, Ladner, Tsawwassen, North Burnaby, East Vancouver and Burnaby South ranging from 11.2 percent to 7.8 percent.