Lower Mainland Q2 Home Sales Value Up 17%: Landcor
Elizabeth Wilson
Other
The value of residential sales in the Lower Mainland in 2014′s second quarter increase 17.24 per cent compared with the same period a year ago, and 35.18 per cent over this year’s first quarter, according to the latest Landcor BC Q2 2014 Residential Sales Summary.
The number of sales in the region in Q2 2014 rose 4.72 per cent compared with Q2 2013, and jumped 39.43 per cent over Q1 2014.
House prices in the region dipped slightly from Q1 to Q2 this year, but they were up across all housing types over last year’s second quarter, with the median price of a detached home rising 7.12 per cent to $865,000.
Unlike the real estate boards, which cover only MLS® resale homes, Landcor Data Corp analyzes all reported home sales in BC, including MLS resale, private resale and newly built homes.
The huge Metro Vancouver region identified by Landcor, which includes BC’s major housing markets as far north as Pemberton and south to the US border, accounts for the greatest sales volume and highest prices in the province. This skews the BC numbers to indicate price drops for the whole province, as the second table shows.
However a closer, region-by-region look shows that prices in the rest of the province actually strengthened from the first to second quarters, and also generally improved year over year. Click here to see regional charts.
BC North Coast Forecast
The Landcor report also looked for signs of a long-anticipated investment uptick in BC’s north coast, where housing demand could suddenly explode where (or if) any proposed new pipelines, refineries and energy shipping terminals come to pass.
Author Will Dunning found that the employment rate for the north coast and Nechako does not indicate that new businesses are moving into the area in anticipation of a boom, and that the economy as a whole is not stronger than the overall BC economy.
Despite a lack of job creation, though, the report found that there’s been positive activity in the housing market. Home sales in Prince Rupert, District of Kitimat and Terrace have been trending upwards since 2012, and home prices have risen by about 30 per cent in a year.
The sales and price numbers indicate that investors see a good chance of increased employment that will lead to greater demand for housing.
© 2014 Real Estate Weekly