HOUSING I November transactions logged at 18.3 per cent ahead of a year ago
Derrick Penner
Sun
Greater Vancouver real estate sales are headed for a high, buoyed by November results showing transactions 18.3-per-cent ahead of a year ago and year-to-date sales that are running 10.7-per-cent higher than 2004.
The Fraser Valley also saw sales remain well above last year’s levels, with 1,620 transactions — 34 per cent more than in November 2004, and the region’s second-highest November on record.
Greater Vancouver saw 2,938 housing units change hands in November, compared with 2,484 sales in November last year, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported Friday.
Average prices at the end of November hit an eye-popping $609,610 for single-family homes, $388,739 for townhouses and $307,739 for apartments.
The November figures bring year-to-date Multiple Listing Service-recorded sales in Greater Vancouver to 38,198 units, compared with 34,497 units for the first 11 months of 2004, and also ahead of the record pace set in 2003.
Townhome sales in November, at 512 units, were the highest they’ve been yet for that month in Greater Vancouver.
Detached, single-family home sales of 1,232 were up a substantial 18 per cent compared with the same month a year ago, and apartment sales of 1,187 were 14-per-cent higher than November 2004.
“Nothing [in the figures] really surprises me,” Georges Pahud, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said in an interview. “I think [the market] is steady . . . employment, interest rates are all steady.”
Pahud added that while average values continue to climb, he is not worried about pricing making homes unaffordable. He noted that while some prices might have doubled since 1995, mortgage interest rates are about half what they were at the same time.
“So [housing] is no more expensive than it was 10 years ago,” he said.
However, Pahud said the affordability factor is one of many driving the sustained high number of apartment sales versus single-family homes.
“It’s probably a combination of things,” Pahud said. “There’s not a lot of land available to build detached homes in Greater Vancouver.
“And the land that’s left is basically zoned at higher density, and people are building apartments.”
Pahud said figures released Friday showing B.C. with its lowest unemployment in 30 years are more evidence that the current hot real estate market can last.
“People are proving [the market] is sustainable,” he added. “They’re definitely voting with their feet and buying real estate.”
Jake Siemens, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, added that as long as employment remains strong, and interest rates rise at the modest levels predicted for the coming months, “I don’t see why there should be any change for the next year.”
Some 794 sales in the Fraser Valley were of single-family homes, 291 were townhomes and 304 were apartments.
Sales in the Fraser Valley did not keep up to October’s 1,778-unit pace, but Siemens said it is typical for sales to slow in November and December. However, November’s sale results were “volumes we’re used to seeing in spring.”
He added that Fraser Valley realtors added 1,857 new listings to the market, which was fewer than October and leaves the overall inventory 24 per cent below the same time last year.
However, Siemens said that while year-over-year prices are up between 13.7 per cent and 16.7 per cent, the month-to-month increase inflation of values has slowed down.
“You’re seeing a bit of stabilization of prices, which is good for buyers and sellers,” Siemens said. “It’s a little bit more certain.”
Cameron Muir, housing market analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., said that while he expects the market to remain strong in 2006, he predicts prices will moderate because of the affordability factor.
“Home prices eventually get to the point where consumers just aren’t able to afford to buy them, in spite of the fact that mortgage rates are still near historic lows,” Muir said.
A HOT NOVEMBER IN REAL ESTATE
Real estate sales across the Lower Mainland remain well above 2004 levels for November, with Greater Vancouver reporting 18.3 per cent more transactions than the same month a year ago, and the Fraser Valley recording its second best November, 34 per cent more than in 2004.
