Home sales in B.C. slip 26 per cent

A sluggish sales market in B.C. is dragging down Canadian real estate numbers.

The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales rose by 0.9 per cent between July and August, marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase.

The growth came as roughly half of all local markets saw a monthover-month increase, led by the Greater Toronto Area, along with gains in Montreal and Edmonton.

Compared with a year ago, sales were down 3.8 per cent, a move CREA attributed mostly to declines in B.C.

The B.C. Real Estate Association says there were 6,743 residential unit sales across the province in August, a 26.4 per cent decrease from the same month last year. The average B.C. home price was also down 1.2 per cent to $699,776.

The downturn in housing demand induced by the mortgage stress test is now largely behind us,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA chief economist. “The B.C. housing market is evolving along the same path blazed by Ontario and Alberta, where the initial shock of the mortgage stress test is already dissipating, leading to increasing home sales.”

For the year, B.C. home sales are down 21.3 per cent, but the average Multiple Listing Service sales price is up 1.7 per cent to $719,064.

CREA chief economist Gregory Klump says recent monthly sales decreases are diminishing, suggesting the housing market’s recent rebound might be starting to dissipate. The CREA says the slight uptick in sales and the lack of new home listings pushed the MLS home price index up 2.5 per cent year over year. The disparity between the two numbers caused the sales-to-new listings ratio to increase to 56.6 per cent in August from 56.2 per cent the month before.