Greater Vancouver home sales rose 4.7% in January from December levels, according to a Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) report released this morning.
The report found that nationally, home sales activity up 1.3% in January, with a few specific pockets of growth, such as Edmonton (10%) and Greater Toronto (5.6%).
“There is little new to report about national sales activity, which continues to hold fairly steady at the lower levels first reached when mortgage rules were tightened in mid-2012,” said CREA president Wayne Moen. “That said, things are becoming more interesting among local markets, with improving sales in Vancouver and Toronto likely to come as something of a surprise to some.”
CREA found that new listings rose in a number of markets, including Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island.
Nationally, CREA found that Canada’s average price for homes sold in January 2013 increased 2% to $354,754 from January 2012 levels.
But it noted that a year-over-year fall in sales in Vancouver’s pricey market pulled that national price increase down. Factoring out Greater Vancouver, Canada’s national average price was up 3.3% in January from the previous year.
Prices dropped by 2.8% in Vancouver, according to the association’s home price index.
