Home Sales Plunge

BUSINESS 12/04/2018 13:44 EST
Vancouver Home Sales Plunge 42.5% In November, To Lowest Level Since Great Recession

With Vancouver building 1.2 new homes for every new resident, the market may be headed for a “bumpy landing."

Vancouver home sales recorded their lowest levels in a decade in November, amid some analysts’ warnings that the market could be headed for something worse than a mild correction.

The 1,608 home sales in the metro area in November represented a 42.5-per-cent decline from the same month a year earlier, and the lowest level of sales for the month since 2008, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said Tuesday.

With buyers absent from the market, the number of homes available for sale has soared, up 40.7 per cent in a year, REBGV said.

“Home prices have declined between four and seven per cent over the last six months depending on property type. We’ll watch conditions in the first quarter of 2019 to see if home buyer demand picks up ahead of the traditionally more active spring market,” REBGV president Phil Moore said.

The benchmark price of a detached home was just above $1.5 million in November, down 6.5 per cent from a year earlier. Condo apartments clocked in at $667,800, up 2.3 per cent from a year earlier but down 2.3 per cent from October.

At the pace properties are selling today, the detached-home market is well into buyer’s territory, while townhomes and condos have fallen from “seller’s markets” to “balanced markets” in the past few months, and appear poised to drop into “buyer’s market” territory soon.
Good news for home inspectors.

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Sales declinelooms large
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by Canadian Press17 Dec 2018
TORONTO_ National home sales are projected to fall to a near decade low in 2019, asrising interest rates and strict mortgage
stress-test rules continue to put a damper onhomebuyer sentiment, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.
Thegroup, which represents more than 125,000 realtors, is projecting that homesales across the country
will decline to the lowest point in nine yearsbut stay little changed from 2018, falling only by 0.5 per cent to 456,200units.
CREAis projecting that the national average price for a home sold through itsmultiple-listing service system will rise 1.7 per cent to $496,800 in 2019.
Theassociation forecasts a rebound in sales activity in Ontario and continuinggains in Quebec.
Saleswere anticipated to fall next year in Alberta and British Columbia.
``In2019, home sales activity and prices are expected to be held in check by recentpolicy changes from different levels of government,
in addition to additional interest rateincreases,’’ the group said in a forecast released Monday.
CREAhas also revised down its projections for 2018, now saying that it expectsnational home sales will decline by 11.2 per cent to 458,200 units in 2018 _
the lowest level in five years.
The group says B.C. and Ontario will makeup the majority of this year’s decline, while sales in Alberta, Saskatchewan,
Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador willalso fall to multi-year lows.

Southern Ontario from Oakville to Niagara has a buying frenzy