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Debbie Twitchell
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THU JANUARY 17, 2019
Home prices holding firm in most Metro Vancouver areas: report F
alling detached-home prices in some Metro Vancouver areas are not enough to cancel out increases in others, with the region’s aggregate home sale price rising 2.1 per cent year over year in 2018’s fourth quarter, according to Royal LePage. The national real estate brokerage’s quarterly House Price Survey, released January 11, found that home prices were holding firm in most Metro Vancouver municipalities, although the trend varied by property type. Across the region as a whole, only bungalows saw a slight year-overyear price decline of 1.4 per cent to a median sale price of $1,402,002. Two-storey houses increased 2.9 per cent year over year to a median of $1,599,785, while condo sale prices across the Metro region rose by 4.6 per cent to $680,991. “While we’ve seen a significant reduction in the number of sales across all housing types, condominiums continue to outperform all other housing types in Greater Vancouver,” said Randy Ryalls, general manager of Royal LePage Sterling Realty. Royal LePage’s survey of homes sold in the fourth quarter found that Vancouver, North Vancouver and Burnaby were the only areas to see an overall price slip compared with the
same quarter in 2017. Vancouver’s aggregate (all home types combined) sale price in Q4 fell 0.6 per cent year-over-year to a still-staggering $1,418,251. The city’s median condo sale price saw a slight rise of 1.4 per cent year over year to $792,321, while two-storey home and bungalow prices fell 0.3 per cent and 3.8 per cent to $2,218,632 and $1,466,006, respectively. North Vancouver’s aggregate home price fell by a similar amount, 0.7 per cent year over year, to $1,435,007, with condo sale prices up 3.4 per cent to $679,526. Aggregate home prices in Burnaby fell the most in the fourth quarter, by 1.1 per cent year-over-year, to $1,093,001.
Defying expectations West Vancouver and Richmond both defied expectations in 2018’s fourth quarter. West Vancouver’s all-hometypes sale price rose 0.2 per cent to a whopping $3,034,685, with the median price of a two-storey home increasing 0.3 per cent to $3,453,541, and condo prices up 3.7 per cent, to $1,240,252. Richmond aggregate home sale price in Q4 rose a surprising 2.8 per cent on an annual basis to $1,165,134, which was the steepest rise in the region. This is largely due to median
condo sale prices rising 8.1 per cent year-over-year to $595,070. In Coquitlam, aggregate home prices rose 0.4 per cent year-overyear to $1,138,387. Prices in Surrey’s aggregate home sale prices rose 2.3 per cent year-over-year to $936,357, while Langley’s aggregate home price increased a solid 2.4 per cent yearover-year to $1,015,021. Ryalls added, “While the condo market is showing balance, in contrast, sales activity within the detached
housing market has slowed down considerably and is firmly in a buyer’s market. The mortgage qualifying regulations have severely attenuated the purchasing power of interested buyers including the all-important ‘move-up’ buyer eager to purchase a townhome or detached home.” The analysis of aggregate and median sale prices offers different results than average sale prices, which can be more heavily skewed by extremes at each end of the market.
$4M-plus Vancouver home sales drop by half One sub-market that certainly has seen considerable declines is high-end homes in the City of Vancouver. Sales of Vancouver detached homes over $4 million plummeted in 2018 by 51 per cent year over, according to a report by Sothebyʼs International Realty Canada, released January 9. Single-family home sales over $1 million fell by 35 per cent compared with 2017. The luxury real estate brokerage said, “In the City of Vancouver, a barrage of government and regulatory interventions compounded by gradual mortgage rate hikes took their toll on top-tier real estate sales.” High-end condos in the City of Vancouver fared somewhat better but still “gave in to market stressors” in the latter half of the year, said Sothebyʼs. Sales on condos over $1 million fell by 14 per cent year over year. The report authors wrote, “A climate of uncertainty thwarted the absorption of rising top-tier housing supply as homebuyers withdrew from the market in hopes of a deeper correction, while demotivated sellers hesitated to price listings appropriately for market conditions.” Sothebyʼs said that, even though benchmark home prices have slipped in the City of Vancouver, affordability had not noticeably improved.
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