Residential property sales declined 32.5% in September to 1,516 units sold, compared with the 2,246 sales in September 2011, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).
This was also a marked decrease of 8.1% compared with the 1,649 sales in August.
September sales were 41.6% below the 10-year September sales average of 2,597.
“There’s been a clear reduction in buyer demand in the three months since the federal government eliminated the availability of a 30-year amortization on government-insured mortgages,” said Eugen Klein, REBGV president.
“This makes homes less affordable for the people of the region.”
New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 5,321 in September, a 6.3% decline compared with September 2011 when 5,680 properties were listed for sale on the MLS.
New listings in September represented a 31.6% increase compared with 4,044 new listings in August.
At 18,350, the total number of residential property listings on the MLS increased 14.1% from this time last year and increased 4.5% compared with August 2012.
“Today, our sales-to-active-listings ratio sits at 8%, which puts us in a buyer’s market. This ratio has been declining in our market since March when it was 19%,” said Klein.
The MLS HPI composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver sits at $606,100. This represents a decline of 0.8% compared with this time last year and a decline of 2.3% over the last three months.
“Prices in the region remain relatively stable overall, although we do see some reductions in the areas that have had some of the largest price increases over the last year or two,” Klein said.
See next week’s issue of Business in Vancouver for more on the housing market decline
