Housing prices down in Vancouver, rising in rest of Canada
Posted July 9, 2013 8:23 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The bubble isn’t bursting; prices are on the way up, nationally. But Vancouver home prices are inching downward.
A house price survey by Royal LePage blames the recent tightening of the mortgage rules, which has made it harder for first-time buyers, and economic and political uncertainty ahead of the provincial election.
“Prices have wandered down slightly. We’re in what really could be called a very stable market,” says Bill Binnie, broker and owner of Royal LePage North Shore. “You have the market not favouring sellers over buyers or vice-versa.”
Year-over-year, prices decreased across all housing types surveyed in Vancouver.
Standard condominium prices dropped by 3.3 per cent to $490,475, while detached bungalows decreased 3.2 per cent to $1,052,500. Standard two-storey home prices decreased 2.3 per cent to $1,151,250.
“There’s about a six-month supply of listings out there, if you want to look at it that way, which is a fairly balanced market,” adds Binnie. “But sales are running about 20-per cent less than they have been over the past 10 years, on average, and so our market has less activity and less sales happening.”
Will Vancouver prices continue to drop?
“I don’t think the market is going to magically pick up, as far as the number of transactions. Part of the falling-off of the numbers is some of the offshore buying is not there anymore. That’s when you start to look at average prices and you can be misled,” he tells News1130.
“It looks like prices have dropped further than they really have because the offshore market was buying some very expensive properties. They’re still in the market, but not to the same extent, so you’re going to see averages fall and you’re going to look at that and say prices are falling. But not so.”
Looking ahead, Royal LePage forecasts that home prices in Vancouver will rise by approximately 2.0 per cent in 2013.
Nationally, the average price of a home in Canada increased between 1.2 per cent and 2.7 per cent in the second quarter.
