Home sales in B.C. will dip 4% to 73,400 in 2012 before rebounding 7.5% to 78,900 units in 2013, according to the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA)'s 2012 Third Quarter Housing Forecast Update released August 30.
"Despite more robust consumer demand in the Interior, fewer home sales in Vancouver will pull the B.C. total lower this year," said BCREA economist Cameron Muir.
"However, a notable growth trend in full-time employment combined with persistently low mortgage interest rates is expected to boost housing demand around the province in 2013."
The Conference Board of Canada (CBC) earlier in the day released its monthly Help Wanted Index report, which backed up Muir's contention that employment levels are on an upward trend.
The CBC index is based on the seasonally adjusted number of new, unduplicated jobs posted online during the month across 79 Canadian job-posting websites.
The CBC's index for B.C. rose 5.7 points and its national index climbed 9.9 points to 131.3 points in July.
"That was a big improvement from what we saw over the first six months of this year when the index failed to gain any ground," the report noted.
However, the report also detailed how the debt crisis in Europe and a potential slowdown in China and the U.S. have made Canadian employers more cautious when it comes to hiring.
