VANCOUVER —
Vancouver home sales were up 29 per cent compared with a year ago in October, making it the second-best October on record, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said on Tuesday.
The board said its agents sold 3,687 homes last month, up from 2,858 sold in October 2019.
The benchmark price for Vancouver homes hit $1,045,100 in October, up six per cent from last October and 0.4 per cent from September.
Bowen Island saw the biggest one-month increase in benchmark home prices, of 5.7 per cent, followed by Sunshine Coast, where prices rose 3.2 per cent. West Vancouver was the priciest neighbourhood, with a benchmark of $2,266,000.
The housing market has been catching up after COVID-19 lockdowns earlier this year stymied the spring selling season. Borrowing costs have also been low amid the COVID-19 response from the Bank of Canada.
October’s housing market snapshot shows that people are re-thinking their housing situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more days and evenings spent at home this year, said board chairwoman Colette Gerber.
“Home has been a focus for residents during the pandemic,” said Gerber in a statement.
Home sales, which were up also 1.2 per cent from September, rose amid a surge in sales of detached homes. In October, 1,335 detached homes changed hands, a 42.3 per cent increase from the same period last year. Detached homes also saw the biggest year-over-year price increase in October, up 8.5 per cent to $1,532,800.
The smaller market for attached homes, such as townhouses and rowhouses, also saw sales rise 45.9 per cent to 782 sales. The benchmark price was up 5.4 per cent, year-over-year, to $813,000.
But sales growth was slightly slower in Vancouver’s most common home type, apartments. Apartment sales hit 1,570, up 13.4 per cent compared with October 2019, while the benchmark price was up 4.4 per cent to $683,500.
The pace of sales in the condo market – particularly, the number of listings hitting the market – has been a focus of economists.
“Rural and suburban areas that once lagged desirable city addresses are now roaring hot as homebuyers wearied by lockdowns seek bigger yards and larger living spaces” wrote RBC economist Robert Hogue on Oct. 29.
“As rents soften and vacancies rise, condo listings are spiking in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver – albeit from low levels.”
Of October’s listings in Vancouver, 2,891 were apartments, 948 were attached homes, and 1,732 were detached homes.
But the 5,571 homes on the market last month – up 36.7 per cent from a year ago – was still below the 6,402 homes that were listed in September. The board said that a closely watched measure of housing supply and demand – the sales-to-active listings ratio – was above a key level that supports rising home prices. even for apartments.
“With demand on the rise, homes priced right for today’s market are receiving attention and, at times, garnering multiple offers,” said Gerber.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2020.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
