Nearly 94,000 homes sold last year, a jump of 21.5 per cent over 2019, it said. The average price for the year across all home types was over $782,000, up 11.7 per cent year over year.
2:05 Fraser Valley reports record breaking 2020 home sales
Fraser Valley reports record breaking 2020 home sales – Jan 5, 2021
“We’ve really been, market by market, seeing record home sales since about the summer, and that momentum looks like it’s going to continue into 2021,” BCREA chief economist Brendon Ogmundson told Global News.
Story continues below advertisement
“In a year when we have a global pandemic and one of the worst recessions in Canadian history.”
COVID-19 employment impacts have disproportionately affected younger, lower-income British Columbians.
Higher-income employment in positions with more opportunity to work from home has actually posted gains of about six per cent since the start of the pandemic, he said.
That segment of would-be buyers has combined with already high demand and a “supercharged environment” of near record-low mortgage rates, Ogmundson said.
The traditionally heated Greater Vancouver market saw gains in 2020, with sales up by 23.1 per cent and prices up by eight per cent to an average of about $1.06 million.
Other parts of the province saw even greater growth.
1:36 B.C. recreational real estate sales seeing pandemic boom
B.C. recreational real estate sales seeing pandemic boom – Nov 30, 2020
The South Okanagan saw sales surge by 32.7 per cent and prices climb 15.5 per cent to an average of about $496,000, according to the data. The Okanagan Mainline region saw sales up 21.8 per cent and prices spike by 16.7 per cent to an average of about $612,000.
On Vancouver Island, sales were up 20.1 per cent, while prices climbed 8.6 per cent to an average of about $531,000.
In Victoria, sales climbed 16.9 per cent, while prices were up 13 per cent to an average of about $778,000.
Ogmundsun believes the increases around the province reflect a combination of the pandemic pushing some people into early retirement, while others able to work remotely sought larger homes away from Vancouver.
With interest rates showing no sign of near-term increases, continued pent-up demand and the possibility of an economic recovery as COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out, Ogmundsun believes 2021 could see even more growth.
“We’re going to have very strong price increases through at least the first half of the year,” he said.
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.
