Benchmark Metro Vancouver home prices rose 2.8% in May, compared with April, to $967,000. That is 8.8% more than in May 2016.
Apartments saw the biggest month-over-month, percentage jump, rising 3.1% to $571,300. That is up 17.8% from May 2016.
Detached homes, meanwhile, increased 2.9% from April to $1,561,000, which is a 3.1% increase from a year ago.
Attached homes increased in price by 1.9%, compared with April, to $715,400, which is 13.1% more than a year ago.
There were 4,364 total sales in the month, which is 8.5% down from the region’s record high total of 4,769 sales in May 2016. Sales in May were up 22.8% compared with April.
“Demand for condominiums and townhomes are driving today’s activity,” said Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver president Jill Oudil. “First-time buyers and people looking to downsize from their single-family homes are both competing for these two types of housing.”
The region’s sales-to-active-listings ratio, across all residential categories, is 53.4%. By property type, the ratio is 31% for detached homes, 76.1% for townhomes, and 94.6% for condominiums.
Conventional real estate wisdom is that a market is considered to be a buyers’ market when the sales-to-active-listings ratio is below 12% or 13%. A balanced market exists when the ratio is between 13% and about 21%. It is then considered a sellers' market when the ratio is above 21% for at least a few months.
