According to a Nov. 3 statement from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), Metro Vancouver listed 3,646 residential property sales through the MLS System for October 2015. This is a 19.3 per cent increase over the 3,057 sales during the same period of 2014, and a nine per cent increase compared to the 3,345 sales month-over-month. Last month’s sales were 36.2 per cent higher than the 10-year sales average for October.
“Home sales are more than one-third above what’s typical for this time of year, yet the supply of homes for sale is the lowest we’ve seen in five years,” said Darcy McLeod, REBGV president, in a press release. “This activity has created favourable market conditions for anyone considering selling their home today.”
There were 4,126 new listings for homes across all property types in October, an eight per cent decline compared to the 4,487 new listings reported in October 2014.
The total number of properties listed for sale on the MLS System is 9,569, a 30 per cent drop compared to October 2014, and an 11.4 per cent decline compared to September 2015. This marks the lowest active listings total for Metro Vancouver since December 2010.
The MLS Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all property types is currently $736,000, which is a 15.3 per cent increase year-over-year.
The sales-to-active-listings ratio reached 38.1 per cent, indicating upward pressure is being applied on home prices in the region for a sustained period of time.
Sales of detached properties increased by 13.1 per cent to 1,437 in October 2015, up from the 1,271 detached home sales in the same period last year, and a 34.7 per cent increase from the 1,067 units sold two years ago. The benchmark price for a detached property grew by 20.1 per cent annually to $1,197,600.
There were 1,543 sales of apartment properties in October 2015, which is a 21.7 per cent increase compared to the 1,268 sales in the same month of 2014 and a 40.5 per cent increase over the 1,098 sales in October 2013. The benchmark price for an apartment property grew by 11.4 per cent annually to $425,800.
There were a total of 666 attached property sales in October 2015, which is a 28.6 per cent increase compared to the 518 sales in October 2014, and a 34.3 per cent increase over October 2013’s 496 attached property sales. The benchmark price of an attached property unit grew by 9.3 per cent annually to $526,700.
