HOUSING I The hike in dollar volume amounted to almost a 23% increase over May of last year
Gillian Shaw
Sun
May home sales in B.C. set a record for dollar volume in a single month, topping the $4-billion mark for the first time, the B.C. Real Estate Association says.
The BCREA reported Friday that 11,338 homes, worth more than $4.52 billion, were sold across the province on the Multiple Listing Service in May, with the number of homes changing hands coming a close second to a historic high set last June.
The hike in dollar volume amounted to almost a 23-per-cent increase over May of last year and it came with an almost two-per-cent hike in the number of units sold.
“They are dramatic numbers,” said BCREA president Kelly Lerigny, a realtor in Chilliwack. “We have been looking out expecting a really strong market to continue, but you always wonder how much longer and stronger.
“I was pleased to see this much optimism in the housing market.”
The gains were province-wide, with all 12 real estate boards reporting double-digit increases in dollar volume sales over May 2005 and eight of the 12 recording increases in the number of units sold.
The figures are particularly buoyant since they come on the heels of a record year in 2005 and marked the beginning of what is traditionally the busiest time of the year for buying and selling homes.
Lerigny said the real estate market is a reflection of the province’s robust economy.
“We are quite delighted to see it right across the province,” she said. “Often the Lower Mainland is experiencing great growth and economic vitality and it is nice to see throughout the province there is this optimism.
Vancouver and Victoria reported healthy double-digit gains, but they didn’t match more dramatic gains made in several other areas of the province.
Lerigny said the lower numbers in those major urban centres don’t reflect a slowing in demand, but rather a lack of inventory.
“If you looked at inventories in the areas where units are down, generally you would see their inventories are down from last year, product inventory is down,” she said. “What I’m hearing from practitioners from Vancouver and even the Fraser Valley is that there is a tightening down on inventory, they have less inventory than they had a year ago.
“There is less to buy. It’s certainly not a lack of interest.”
Greater Vancouver saw an 18- per-cent increase, putting last month’s sales at $2.3 billion, compared to $1.9 billion in May a year ago. The number of homes sold was down four per cent over the year earlier, with 4,408 units changing hands in May compared to 4,610 a year ago.
Greater Victoria saw the second-lowest dollar increase with a 13-per-cent rise to $360 million, after Powell River, which had a 10-per-cent increase in the dollar value of homes sold. Volume was up slightly in Victoria, with an almost two-per-cent increase over last year, resulting in 855 homes sold there in May.
Chilliwack saw the most dramatic increase in sales last month, up 46 per cent over May 2005, with value cracking a record $100 million. Kamloops saw a 35-per-cent hike in dollar volumes with $80 million in homes sold in May compared to $59 million in the same period last year.
Northern B.C., the Fraser Valley and the Kootenays also saw significant increases in dollar volume of around 33 per cent, with Vancouver Island not far behind with a jump of almost 29 per cent.
The South Okanagan saw a 17- per-cent rise and business was slightly brisker for Okanagan Mainline which recorded a 19-per-cent rise in dollar volumes over last year.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006