Real estate statistics for the beginning of 2017 show temperatures in North and West Vancouver weren’t the only thing in the deep freeze at the beginning of the year.
Sales of single-family homes continued to tumble throughout Metro Vancouver last month, with January sales below long-term averages, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
On the North Shore, those trends were even more pronounced. Only 20 detached homes sold in West Vancouver in January, bringing its sales-to-listings ratio down to 12 per cent. Sales of detached homes between November and January are down 67 per cent over the same time last year.
West Vancouver Realtor Allan Angell, who specializes in the high-end luxury market, calls the situation in that market “almost tied for the worst of all time.”
Realtor Brent Eilers of Remax Masters Realty in West Vancouver, has examined statistics dating back over the past three decades, and shares that assessment.
“It’s one of the most significant slowdowns we’ve had,” he said.
“We’re down significantly compared to the historical norms for both communities,” he said of detached sales in North Vancouver and West Vancouver.
Prices are also beginning to fall.
The real estate board put the “benchmark” price of a West Vancouver house at $2.9 million in January – down 13 per cent from six months ago.
But Eilers said median prices of homes sold are down farther than that and “many have had to go through multiple price reductions to get sold.”
In North Vancouver, 34 single-family homes sold in January. Sales of detached homes there between November and January were down 42 per cent over the same period last year.
One area of the market that is still active is sales of condos in North Vancouver. “It’s much more active than the single-family sales,” said Realtor Satnam Sidhu of Remax Crest Realty in North Vancouver. “A lot of them are being sold with multiple offers.”
Local buyers are flocking to condos because “that’s what people can afford,” said Sidhu. Sidhu added some first-time buyers are taking advantage of the province’s new homebuyers program that provides a loan for a portion of a down payment.
Tightening of federal mortgage rules in the fall mean many buyers are qualifying for a smaller loan than they would even a year ago, said Sidhu. “That’s another reason why the condo market has been active,” he said. “People have had to downsize their expectations.”
The “benchmark” price of a townhouse in North Vancouver was $831,000 in January – down just four per cent from six months ago, while the price of an apartment held steady at about $455,000, according to January statistics from the real estate board. There were 72 sales of townhouses and apartments in January in North Vancouver.
In the high end of the market, real estate agents say much of the drop-off in sales is due to far fewer foreign buyers snapping up homes than were doing so prior to the province’s imposition of a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers in August.
There are, however, still notable exceptions. Three homes in the British Properties sold for stratospheric prices in January – one for $9 million, one for $13 million and one for $15 million. That’s equal to the number of properties that sold above $9 million between August and December 2016.
“I guess if you can afford $15 million, who cares what the market is doing,” said Sidhu.
Angell said he doesn’t think the foreign buyers tax has made homes on the North Shore any more affordable to the average person.
“If you couldn’t afford a house a year ago, you still can’t today,” he said.
