Vancouver Home sales fell by 39% in January (1500 home sales)
Vancouver home sales slumped last month
Steve Randall
REP
There was a sharp fall in the number of homes sold in Metro Vancouver last month with detached homes the largest drag on the market.
Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver figures show a 39.5 per cent slump in home sales year-over-year in January with 1,523 homes sold. The number was also 11 per cent below December 2016 sales.
“From a real estate perspective, it’s a lukewarm start to the year compared to 2016,” Dan Morrison, Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) president said. “While we saw near record-breaking sales at this time last year, home buyers and sellers are more reluctant to engage so far in 2017.”
Detached homes saw a drop to just 444, down more than 57 per cent from a year earlier. There was a 6.6 per cent drop in prices for detached homes compared to six months earlier; down to a benchmark of $1,474,800, which was also 0.6 per cent below the benchmark in December.
“Conditions within the market vary depending on property type. The townhome and condominium markets are more active than the detached market at the moment,” Morrison said. “As a result, detached home prices declined about 7 per cent since peaking in July while townhome and condominium prices held steady over this period.”
For apartments, there was better news on prices, which saw a 0.3 per cent increase in 6 months to a benchmark $512,300 (0.4 per cent up from December). Sales of apartments slipped 24.7 per cent though in January compared to a year earlier with 825 sales.
Attached home prices were down 0.4 per cent in 6 months (up 0.7 per cent from December) to a benchmark $666,500 but sales were down 32.4 per cent year-over-year to 254 units.
New listings in January were down 6.8 per cent from a year earlier but jumped 215.5 per cent from December to 4,140.
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