Metro Vancouver home sales stabilized in January, following a sluggish 2013, when sales were dramatically below the 10-year average, according to numbers that the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver released February 4.
Prices also rose 3.2% year-over-year during the month.
Total Metro Vancouver home sales in January reached 1,760, which is a 30.3% increase from the 1,351 sales in the same month a year ago.
January sales were also 7.2% above the 10-year sales average for the month, according to the REBGV.
Those strong sales are a relief to realtors who suffered through sluggish sales in 2013, when there was the third lowest annual total for the region in the last ten years. Those sales were also 12.9% below the 10-year average, according to REBGV statistics.
Listings, however, have also been low, leading to a relatively balanced sales-to-listings ratio.
"The Greater Vancouver housing market has been in a balanced market for nearly a year," said REBGV president Sandra Wyant.
"This has meant steady home sale and listing activity accompanied by stable home prices."
New listings were also stronger in January than they were a year ago.
There were 5,345 new listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Metro Vancouver in January, or 4.2% more than in the same month a year ago.
The benchmark price for a Vancouver home is now $606,800, or 3.2% more than a year ago. Benchmark prices for detached homes rose 3.2% to $929,700 whereas the benchmark price for an apartment increased 3.7% year-over-year to $371,500. Attached property benchmark prices inched up 1.7% year-over-year in January to $457,700.
