Year-over-year housing prices are up in Vancouver, but homes are typically selling below the owners’ asking price.
This according to a Royal LePage house price survey released Tuesday that reported an 8.8% year-over-year increase in detached bungalow prices in Vancouver.
That means the city’s average house was priced at $873,500 in the third quarter. The price for standard two-storey homes rose 8% to an average price of $977,250. Condominiums were up 10.2% to $491,000 in year-over-year comparisons.
Still, Royal LePage said the 2010 residential real estate market to date is 10% slower than it was a year ago. New home sales are down, with condominium sales moving particularly slow.
The real estate company said the market is unfolding across the country much as it predicted with a general slowing trend following the first half of the year.
“Our market has cooled since the beginning of the year,” said Bill Binnie, owner of Royal LePage North Shore. “To put things in perspective, however, third quarter unit sales are up 40% over the same period in 2008.”
He added that Vancouver has a healthy and balanced market.
Chris Simmons, owner of Royal LePage Sunshine Coast, said the HST could have had an impact on the third quarter slowdown because it pushed many sales into the first half of the year as owners tried to beat the new tax that was effective July 1.
The news follows similar statements recently from both the B.C. Real Estate Association and Central 1 Credit Union that Vancouver’s housing market may experience a downward trend for the remainder of the year (See “B.C. residential real estate sales fell in September: BCREA ” – BIV Business Today, October 13 and “Lower prices could drive B.C. real estate sales in 2011 and 2012 ” – BIV Business Today, September 30).