Vancouver housing market easing towards more balanced conditions
Increased supply and more demand is moving the Vancouver market to normal levels
Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth
With much-boosted supply offsetting intensified demand, Vancouver’s housing market is steadily moving towards better balance, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
A total of 4,866 homes were newly listed in September, amounting to a 29.9% increase compared to August, and a 7.8% year-over-year drop.
Sales transactions swelled by 46.3% annually last month, with a total of 2,333 homes sold. This was just 1.7% lower than the 10-year average for September, and a massive increase from the 1,595 deals closed during the same time last year.
At the same time, overall prices veered lower. The composite benchmark price across all housing types in Metro Vancouver declined by 7.3% annually and 0.3% monthly in September (to $990,600).
Single detached homes saw their benchmark price drop by 8.6% year-over-year, while condos had a 6.5% decrease. Attached home prices went down 7.2%.
Over the past few months, Vancouver prices have experienced decreases, while much of Canada has gone up.
The Teranet – National Bank of Canada House Price Index released last month showed that Vancouver’s average housing price (across all asset classes) fell by 6.63% year-over-year in August, bringing composite prices down by 6.96% from the peak seen in July 2018.
“The city’s index has shown negative growth every month this year,” Better Dwelling stated in its analysis of the data – an observation that has been echoed in a CREA study.
“In recent months, home prices have generally been stabilizing in British Columbia and the Prairies, a measure which had been falling until recently,” the CREA noted recently.
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