Vancouver up 77 per cent in second quarter
Derrick Penner
Sun
Rising sales in British Columbia‘s real estate sector helped put the bounce in Canada‘s overall property market, according to new reports.
Vancouver was among the major markets to see stronger activity, with sales up 77 per cent in the second quarter over the first quarter, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Tuesday in its second-quarter report.
Such a big increase was surprising given the still-weak nature of the overall economy, Bryan Yu, an economist with the B.C. Real Estate Association, said in an interview.
“At the same time, we have to realize what’s driving the market has been improved affordability,” Yu said. “We have seen lower mortgage rates and lower prices.”
Yu added that second-quarter sales represent a rebound from the dismal lows between last November and January.
The B.C. Real Estate Association released its own June sales report this week showing transactions for the month, at 9,970, were some 40 per cent higher than in June 2008. Most of the gains were concentrated in the bigger markets of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.
“In areas like Vancouver and Victoria, we’ve seen balanced conditions emerge,” Yu said. “In other areas of the province, they’re still in buyers’ markets.”
Across Canada, sales were up 1.4 per cent from the corresponding quarter a year ago, the first year-over-year quarterly increase since the fourth quarter of 2007, CREA said.
Sales also rose from the previous quarter, with seasonally adjusted figures jumping to a record 31.5 per cent from the first quarter of 2009.
“Potential buyers who moved to the sidelines late last year when economic uncertainty peaked are returning to the housing market now that the worst of the recession may be behind us,” said CREA president Dale Ripplinger.
Demand was high in some of the most expensive markets in the country, CREA said in a release, “skewing the national average price upward.”
Nationally, the average home price of $326,613 was 3.6-per-cent higher than a year ago. In B.C., CREA calculated an average price of $461,931, down 0.3 per cent from June a year ago.
Increases in Toronto (45 per cent), Vancouver (77 per cent), Montreal (33 per cent), Calgary (66 per cent) and Edmonton (39 per cent) contributed most to the national increase in activity.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
