Vancouver’s March home sales soar
Highest total on record for real estate board
Existing home s al es in Greater Vancouver for March smashed through previous records, as West Coast prices continued to soar.
It was t he first t i me the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has seen 5,000 sales for the month and comes as the market faces increasing focus from people worried about a bubble and the impact foreign buyers are having on property activity and values.
“March was the highest selling month the REBGV has ever recorded,” Dan Morrison, president of the board, said in a statement Monday. “Today’s demand is broad- based. Home buy- ers are active in neighbourhoods across our region.”
The pace of sales is picking up. The board said the 5,173 sales in March climbed 24 per cent from just February. But even on a yearover- year sales were up 27.4 per cent. Last month’s sales were 56 per cent above the 10- year average for the month.
The latest statistics come on the heels of a federal budget that expressed the need for more data to find out the impact of foreign buyers on the housing market. Ottawa has pledged $ 500,000 to Statistics Canada to study the issue which is generally seen as only being a concern in Toronto or Vancouver.
For now, the supply of new listings seems to have no chance of keeping up with demand for housing in Canada’s most expensive city.
The board said new listings for detached, attached and apartment properties reached 6,278 in Metro Van- couver in March 2016, only a 5.2- per- cent increase from a year ago but an eight- percent jump from February.
In total, there were 7,358 listings on the Multiple Listing System in March, a 40.5- per- cent drop from a year ago but an 0.8-per-cent increase from February, 2016.
“Strong job and economic growth in our province, positive net migration and low interest rates are helping to drive this activity," said Morrison.
The impact on prices caused by the demand/supply imbalance continues to be felt. The board’s Home Price Index composite benchmark price f or all residential properties in Metro Vancouver rose 23.2 per cent from a year ago to $ 815,000. The average price of a detached home in Greater Vancouver is now $1.78 million.