Potential buyers get more time to consider their purchases
Bruce Constantineau
Sun
Lower Mainland housing sales dropped off last month and the number of homes for sale went up, giving potential buyers more time to consider their purchases, the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley real estate boards reported Thursday.
Greater Vancouver Multiple Listing Service sales fell to 1,681 units in January, a 14-per-cent drop from January 2004, while the Fraser Valley board reported an even steeper decline, with sales falling 18 per cent to 842 units.
“It’s a good healthy balanced market now, and there’s nothing to indicate it’s taking a turn in the other direction,” said Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver president Andrew Peck. “It’s just not as panicky as it was at this time last year.”
The number of new Greater Vancouver listings increased by nearly 90 per cent, from 1,766 in December to 3,342 in January, while Fraser Valley listings grew by almost 50 per cent to 1,874.
Peck said the falling sales volume should not be considered unusual since it follows a period of record activity.
“It’s absolutely normal to see the market pull back a bit from the record activity we saw a year ago,” he said. “There’s just not as many buyers out there who are lining up, but there are still buyers out there.”
The MLS statistics show purchasers usually take more time to look around the market before committing to buying a property.
The average time it takes for a downtown Vancouver condominium to be sold on the MLS has risen from 19 days to 31 days during the past year, while it now takes an average of 41 days for an East Vancouver condo to sell, more than double the 20 days it took a year ago.
Both boards said prices have remained steady, with the average price of a detached Fraser Valley house rising by 7.1 per cent during the past year to $351,000, and the benchmark price of a detached Greater Vancouver home climbing by 8.6 per cent to $482,200.
Peck said second- and third-time buyers are driving a significant portion of the market now, with many buying mid-priced and higher-priced homes.
While Greater Vancouver housing sales fell in January, the market still had a few hot spots. There were 110 Burnaby apartment units sold during the month, a 55-per-cent increase over the same month last year, while the number of East Vancouver townhouses sold rose by 54 per cent to 34.
Most Fraser Valley markets experienced year-over-year volume declines in January.
