The performance of the Metro Vancouver housing market is up on a slow pace ever since the year started. As February ended, there are definitely numbers to further give us an idea on how things are currently going.
The Metro Vancouver home sellers are reluctant towards the region’s housing market. And this attitude is really impacting not just the sale but also the price activity throughout.
The total home sales last January 2017 is 1,523 and February ended with a total of 2,425. And while we see that there is an increase of 59.2, it is worth noting that there is a dip of 41.9 per cent equivalent to 4,172 homes sold last February 2016. Dan Morrison, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver president, revealed that this February’s sales were actually 7.7 per cent below the activity last 2016 and actually even below the long-term historical average for the month. He added that the limited supply and snowy weather were definitely two factors that affected the performance of the housing market.
Coming from the record of 5,812 units listed last February 2016, there were only 3,666 new listings for detached, attached and apartment properties last month. This translates to a 36.9 per cent decrease from the performance of February 2016 and even another point of decrease from the total of 4,140 properties listed during the first month of this year. It is alarming because the performance we see here is actually the lowest number of the registered new listings that we have gotten ever since February 2003.
On a brighter note, based on Multiple Listing Service or MLS, the total number of properties currently listed for sale is 7,594. This shows an increase of 4% compared to February 2016 with only 7,299 listed properties for sale, and a 4.9% increase from the recorded 7,238 listings last January 2017.
Analysts shed more light on the situation and said that the downward pressure on home prices tend to happen when the ratio drops below the 12% mark for a certain time frame. Moreover, the home prices experience an upward pressure when it goes beyond the 20% mark over several months.
At the start of the year, we saw how slow the pace is going for the Metro Vancouver housing market. There is a struggle to keep up with the demand of the present time considering the performance of the home seller supply. This is the reason why there is a downward pressure on the prices that is specifically directed to the condominium and townhome markets.
Interestingly, a decrease of 2.8 per cent is happening over the past six months, but a 1.2 per cent increase compared to January 2017. We have to remember that the composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver based on MLS Home Price Index is currently at $906,700.
Total sales of detached properties last month was only 745 compared to the 1,778 record last February 2016. This shows a decrease of 58.1 per cent wherein the benchmark price is at $1,474,200, and a decrease of 6.5 per cent over the six months.
The total sales of apartment properties last month were 1,275. Compared to the 1,790 sales made last February 2016, we see the 28.8 per cent decrease there. However, there is also an increase of 2.3 per cent over the past six months and another increase of 2.7 compared to January 2017.
Lastly, the sales for attached property sales totaled to 404, which translates to a 33.1 per cent decrease based from the 604 sales made last February 2016. Again, the benchmark price of a unit is $675,500, which is representing a 0.3 per cent decrease over the past six months and a 1.3 per cent increase compared to January 2017