Third-highest Selling May On Record

May has started a spring fever of home sales in Metro Vancouver with the third-highest selling May on record. According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), total home sales in Metro Vancouver raised 22.8% from April to May, making for a total of 4,364 sold properties in the region. For the 10-year sales average for May, the total sales are an impressive 24% higher.

Even with those strong numbers, the same period last year showed 8.5% more home sales with an impressive 4769 homes sold. With those numbers, there was a 3.9% decrease in detached, attached and apartment properties for Metro Vancouver since last year, but a hearty 23.3% rise since April.

What has been going up since last year is the benchmark price for residential properties in Metro Vancouver. Coming up at $967,500 it has seen an 8.8% increase over May of last year, and a 2.8% from April. The detached properties have seen a greater rise at 3.1%, benchmark price being $1,561,000, and a month-over-month increase in new listings of 27%. However, the actual sales of those homes are still lower, 17% less than last May.

As for apartment properties, there has been an even greater decrease than that of detached homes, with a 5.8% sales drop this May compared to last year. Like that of the detached properties, the benchmark price for attached properties rose, but quite a bit more with 17.8% ($571,300) since last May.

Attached properties have increases both in sales and benchmark price May 2017 versus May 2016, with 4.9% and 13.7% respectively, benchmark price being $715,400.

Driving the current market is “First-time buyers and people looking to downsize from their single-family homes are both competing for these two types of housing” and “Demand for condominiums and townhomes” said Jill Oudil, REBGV president.

Looking from last year to this year, “it’s clear that townhomes and condominiums are leading the way” and though sales are “inching closer to the record-breaking pace of 2016, the market itself looks different. Sales last year were driven by demand for single-family homes,” said Oudil.

May of last year may have seen some higher numbers in sales, but this year is still showing a rise, and is the third-highest selling May on record. We will wait and see if we are indeed in for more record-breaking pace like we saw last year in Metro Vancouver.

Source: http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-housing-prices-real-estate-sales-may