According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, demand for homes in Metro Vancouver is constantly climbing the ladder. On the other hand, there is no sign of an increase in the supply of houses in the market. The REBGV said that listings combined with high demand, precisely for condos and townhomes, continued to influence Metro Vancouver’s real estate market in the month of March 2017.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver discovered that the sale of residential properties in the province amounted to 3,579 after the first quarter of the year 2017. And when juxtaposed to March 2016’s record-breaking sale of 5,173 houses, it was found that there has been a drop of 30.8% in the sale.
Despite such a fall, there is another statistics that would give the residents of Metro Vancouver a sigh of relief. The residential sales fell when compared to sales in March 2016 but when contrasted with the sales of the month of February 2017, there has been an increase of 47.6% in sales. In February 2017, only 2,425 residential properties were sold.
Also, the data revealed that the previous month’s sales were 7.9%, which is above the 10-year sales average for the month.
The President of REBGV Jill Oudil explained, “While demand in March was below the record high of last year, we saw demand increase month-to-month for condos and townhomes.” He further added, “Sellers still seem reluctant to put their homes on the market, making for stiff competition among home buyers.”
The Game of Numbers
In March 2017, in Metro Vancouver, the total number of detached, attached and apartment properties made available totalled 4,762. The figure indicates a fall of 24.1% as last year in March, the number of units listed were 6,278. On the contrary, the figure points to an increase of 29.9% when compared to the listings made available in February 2017. This is being considered the lowest number of listings in the month of March since 2009.
A statement released by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver stated: “The total number of properties currently listed for sale on the MLS system in Metro Vancouver is 7,586, a 3.1 percent increase compared to March 2016 (7,358) and a 0.1 percent decrease compared to February 2017 (7,594).”
The board said that the market analysts could sense a downward pressure on the house prices when the ratio declines below the 12% mark for a continuous period. However, house prices usually feel mounting pressure when they outpace 20% ratio for over a number of months.
Oudil said, “Home prices will likely continue to increase until we see more housing supply coming on to the market.”
The benchmark prices in Metro Vancouver for all residential properties fell by 1% over the previous six months and rose by 1.4% juxtaposed to February 2017.
To sum it up, the statistics showed that the sale of detached, attached and apartment properties decreased when compared to the property sales of March 2016. The drop in sales also led to the change in benchmark prices of the properties.
