Steady incline of provincial sales figures masks significant differences between thriving southern and resource-driven northern board stats
Joannah Connolly
Other
Home sales across BC maintained their steady annual incline, although these figures obscure significant variations between southern and northern markets, according to a BC Real Estate Association report issued November 12.
There were 8,725 residential sales on the Mulitple Listing Serive® (MLS®) in October 2015 – a 14.1 per cent rise over October 2014.
The total sales dollar volume across BC in October was $5.8 billion, an impressive 32.3 per cent increase over the same month last year. This jump is due to combination of the rising transaction volumes and the average MLS® residential price in BC rising to $667,480, up 16 per cent from October 2014.
Year-to-date, BC residential sales dollar volume increased 33.6 per cent to $55.3 billion, when compared with January-October 2014.
“Consumer demand continued at a heightened pace in October,” said BCREA economist Brendon Ogmundson.
However, an examination of individual real estate board reports shows that the steady rise of activity in BC as a whole masks wild variations between individual markets across the province.
Ogmundson added, “Market conditions have diverged significantly in the province, as very low supply and a near-record pace of home sales in the Metro Vancouver area is offsetting resource sector-driven weakness in northern markets.”
Powell River and South Okanagan were two boards in the province to see the highest sales growth, up 95.7 and 30.5 per cent compared with last October, although both markets are so small as to be significantly affected by relatively few sales.
The larger markets to see strong unit sales growth in October were Chilliwack, the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver, rising 24.1, 21 and 19.3 per cent respectively year over year.
The Northern Lights and BC Northern regions recorded the biggest annual decline in unit sales, down 58.5 and 8.9 per cent year over year – although, again, the Northern Lights region is small enough to be affected greatly by small changes, so the figure could be anomalous.
The Northern Lights board again registered the province’s largest annual price drop, with the average price of a home in that region falling 15.3 per cent in October compared with the same month in 2015.
Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley’s reported annual average price rise of 15.6 per cent were the largest in BC. Greater Vancouver’s sales-to-active-listings ratio was again the province’s highest, meaning that is still deepest into sellers’ market territory.
© 2015 Real Estate Weekly