REP
Residential property sales in Metro Vancouver slumped 39.6% in January 2017 compared to the same month last year, figures form the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver revealed.
There were 1,523 units sold last month, below the 10-year sales average for January. It’s a drop from the 2,519 units sold in January 2016, and the 1,714 homes sold last December.
“While we saw near record-breaking sales at this time last year, home buyers and sellers are more reluctant to engage so far in 2017,” said REBGV president Dan Morrison. “From a real estate perspective, it’s a lukewarm start to the year compared to 2016.”
Metro Vancouver also saw an annualized decrease in new listings. There were 4,140 of them in total last month – that’s 6.8% lower than in January 2016. But the number marked a rise from the 1,312 new listings last December.
January 2017 marked the lowest sales-to active-ratio (21%) since the same month in 2015. Detached homes spent an average of 58 days on the market. The length was lower for apartments (35 days), and townhouses (43 days).
“Conditions within the market vary depending on property type. The townhome and condominium markets are more active than the detached market at the moment,” Morrison said. “As a result, detached home prices declined about 7 per cent since peaking in July while townhome and condominium prices held steady over this period.”
Sales according to property type dropped across the board, RBGV figure’s showed.
|
Property Type |
January 2016 Sales |
January 2017 Sales |
Change |
|
Detached Homes |
1,047 |
444 |
(-57.6%) |
|
Apartments |
1,096 |
825 |
(-24.7%) |
|
Townhomes |
376 |
254 |
(-32.4%) |
The market saw 2016 as the third highest selling year on record, behind only 20015 and 2005, REBGV said.
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