VANCOUVER
— Metro Vancouver house prices reached a new peak level in January
while the overall pace of sales across the Lower Mainland eased off the
torrid pace seen in December, according to reports from the region’s
real estate boards.
In Metro Vancouver, the benchmark
price for a single-family home, the average price for typical homes
sold, hit $788,499, some 20 per cent above January a year ago, when
prices were still falling during the economic downturn, and two per
cent above the previous peak of $771,250 in May of 2008.
That
new high, however, was driven mostly by the sales of higher-priced
properties in specific municipalities, Robyn Adamache, a market analyst
for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., said in an interview.
“Mostly, the areas above [the peak] are the west side of Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond and the Tri Cities,” Adamache said.
In
the rest of Metro Vancouver within the Real Estate Board of Greater
Vancouver’s territory, house prices are still below their previous
peaks.
While the bounce-back has been rapid, Tsur
Somerville, a real estate expert at the University of British Columbia,
said the new highs are less concerning given that mortgage rates remain
at near record lows.
“That carrying cost and monthly
mortgage payment is still down [from peak levels],” Somerville,
director of the centre for urban economics and real estate at the
Sauder School of Business at UBC, said in an interview.
“We’re not at the point where we’re freaking out again [about high prices], but it bears watching.”
Somerville
added that with overall sales cooling a bit in January compared with
last December’s high level, the rate of price growth is likely to slow
as well.
Sales across the Lower Mainland in January eased off their December pace.
In
Metro Vancouver, realtors recorded 1,923 sales through the Multiple
Listing Service in January, which was more than double the number of
sales in the same month a year ago, but off almost 24 per cent from the
pace of sales in the previous month.
In the Fraser Valley,
realtors saw 981 sales through the Multiple Listing Service in January,
off 22 per cent from December, but still more than double the number of
sales from the same month a year ago when markets across the Lower
Mainland had nearly ground to a halt.
“Sales are not declining,” Somerville added. “But we’re slowing the rate of [sales] growth to something that makes more sense.”
He
said January’s sales, while below 2005 levels, the region’s peak year
for transactions, the month was still on par with 2006 and 2007, which
were busy years on the region’s historical scale.
Somerville
guessed that some of this year’s reduction in sales may be
Olympic-influenced. Condo owners who are renting their properties out
for the Games are more reluctant to list them for sale until the event
is over.
Jake Moldowan, president-elect of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, said January was still a busy month for realtors.
He
added that a substantial rise in new listings in January was
“refreshing for us, because we were getting short of product again.”
Homeowners
put 5,147 properties on the market in January, which was 139 per cent
more than were listed in December, and was 39 per cent higher than in
January 2009.
Sellers listed 2,941 properties for sale in
January, a near doubling from the number of new listings put up for
sale in December.
The benchmark price for a Fraser Valley
single-family home, the average value of typical homes sold, hit
$500,931 in January, up almost 11 per cent from the same month a year
ago, but still slightly below peak levels.
• PRICE POINTS
Lower
Mainland real estate markets saw prices jump again in January, in some
locations beyond previous peak levels to new records. Below are some
year-over-year examples of benchmark prices, which are average prices
for typical homes sold.
• Metro Vancouver
Single family: $$788,499 +20%
Townhouse: $482,478 +13%
Condominium: $385,487 +15%
• Fraser Valley
Single family: $500,931 +11%
Townhouse: $317,719 +8%
Condominium: $243,470 +10%
Source: Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley Real Estate Board
depenner@vancouversun.com
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