Metro Vancouver home buyers, sellers ‘less active’
Posted April 4, 2018 7:44 am.
Last Updated April 4, 2018 12:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s been a slower first quarter of 2018, with fewer home sales and listings recorded across Metro Vancouver, the regional real estate board says.
It explains residential home sales across the region dropped by 29.7 per cent in March from the same time last year. However, sales increased by 14 per cent compared to the previous month.
“We saw less demand from buyers and fewer homes listed for sale in our region in the first quarter of the year,” says Phil Moore, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). “High prices, new tax announcements, rising interest rates, and stricter mortgage requirements are among the factors affecting home buyer and seller activity.”
Listings for detached, attached, and apartment-type homes decreased 6.6 per cent in March compared to the same month in 2017, but increased by 5.4 per cent compared to the month before.
“Even with lower demand, upward pressure on prices will continue as long as the supply of homes for sale remains low,” Moore says. He notes “last month was the quietest March for new home listings since 2009.”
Addressing the supply-versus-demand issue, if you think lower demand will bring prices down Moore says upward pressure on them will continue so long as “supply for sale remains low.”
