Province
Home sales in B.C. tumbled 23 per cent last month, the B.C. Real Estate Association says.
Residential sales through the Multiple Listing Service in the province plunged to 7,722 in June from the same month last year, the association said Thursday.
Seasonally adjusted sales fell five per cent in June from May 2010, the association said. The average MLS home price rose eight per cent to $499,908 in June from the same month a year earlier.
“Market conditions have shifted from balanced conditions at the start of the year to a buyers’ market this summer,” association chief economist Cameron Muir said.
“Tighter credit conditions for homes with secondary suites and low-equity home buyers have moderated consumer demand,” he added.
Nationally, existing home sales continued their rapid decline last month, with 70 per cent of markets showing a drop in sales in June from May, says the Canadian Real Estate Association.
The Ottawa-based group, which has 100 boards across the country, said sales were off 8.2 per cent from a month ago on a seasonally adjusted basis. Toronto and Calgary led the decline.
Actual sales activity was down 19.7 per cent in June 2010 from a year ago when there were a record number of sales. Sales activity for the second quarter is actually down 2.8 per cent from a year ago but for the year to date sales are still up 13.6 per cent.
The number of Canadians putting their homes up for sale is declining, which should be good for the market. The number of new listings on the market in June dropped 6.8 per cent from May.
Price increases are also starting to slow. CREA said the national average sales price rose just 4.9 per cent from a year ago to $342,662.
The number of months of inventory in the market, which represents the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity, is also rising fast. It was 5.7 months at the end of June 2010 nationally, up from 4.2 months a year ago.
“The housing market is becoming more challenging for sellers,” said Georges Pahud, CREA president. “Buyers are in less of a hurry.”
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