April hike means home sales do better for third month in a row
Province
House prices in B.C. have yet to recover but the residential market is beginning to find its feet again, the B.C. Real Estate Association says.
The average house price across the province last month fell six per cent to $449,372 from $478,044 a year earlier, the association said yesterday.
But April marked the third-consecutive month of rising home sales in B.C., on a seasonally adjusted basis, the association said.
Lower home prices and record-low mortgage-interest rates have strengthened consumer demand, the association said.
The beginning of April saw housing affordability touch a three-year high.
And the number of homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service sank to a 12-month low in April, seasonally adjusted.
“Downward pressure on home prices has eased considerably,” association chief economist Cameron Muir said.
“An increase in consumer demand combined with fewer homes for sale has trended the market near balanced conditions.”
In Greater Vancouver, average prices in April were down 8.2 per cent to $565,003 from last year.
Residential sales volume in B.C. fell 24.6 per cent to $3.1 billion in April from a year ago. Year to date, sales lost 40.5 per cent to $7.8 billion from the same period last year.
The year-to-date average MLS price sank nine per cent to $433,246 from a year earlier.
Nationally, home sales surged in April, a third-consecutive monthly increase, which forced the Canadian Real Estate Association to revise its forecast.
On a seasonally adjusted basis there were 34,838 unit sales last month, an 11.2-per-cent increase from March and the largest monthly jump in sales since March 2004.
The average price of a home sold in April was $306,366, a 3.2-per-cent decline from a year ago.
Because of its renewed confidence in the market, the association is now forecasting sales will come in at 370,500 for 2009, up from the 360,900 in sales the group was forecasting in February.
But even the renewed forecast would be a 14.7-per-cent drop in sales from a year ago and a far cry from the record 523,855 in sales in 2007.
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