DATE

BC Housing Market Sluggish Year to Date

Steve Saretsky -

BC’s provincial housing market showed signs of stabilizing in July. The month of July notched a 12% increase in home sales year-over-year (not seasonally adjusted). This was the first time sales had increased on a year-over-year basis in eighteen months. However, sales are still below historical averages, ultimately suggesting the housing market is not out of the woods just yet.

When looking at seasonally adjusted data, it also appears sales have bottomed, at least in Greater Vancouver which notched a 24% gain year-over-year. However, active listings across the province are still growing, up 12% from last year. A record number of new homes under construction in BC should add to that in the year ahead.

BC Home Sales and Active Listings
Seasonally adjusted home sales and active listings in BC

Despite the uptick in activity in July, it remains a sluggish year for the BC housing market. The weakness in Greater Vancouver has spread across the province. This has prompted a year to date 14.4% decline in sales and a 5.3% drop in the average sales price.

year to date activity
Year to Date activity across BC.

 

Join the Monday Newsletter

Every Monday morning you'll receive a short and entertaining round-up of news on the Vancouver & Canadian Real Estate markets.

"*" indicates required fields

The Canadian Economy

Steve Saretsky -

Happy Monday Morning! We got a string of new data this past week confirming inflation in consumer goods, and housing are proving to be more than transitory. Canada’s consumer price index continued to drift higher with prices hitting an 18 year high, up 4.7% from last October. The recent floods in BC...

Steve Saretsky -

The calls for impending interest rate hikes continues. CIBC’s chief economist, Benjamin Tal, was out recently suggesting the Bank of Canada could hike its benchmark interest rate at least six times beginning in early 2022. “I think there is a risk of getting into the market at today’s rates,” noted Tal....

Steve Saretsky -

The BC Government announced it is looking at several cooling measures for the housing market in 2022. They have highlighted two measures. The first is an end to the blind bidding process, and the other is a mandatory “cooling off period” which will allow any buyer a 7 day recession...

Steve Saretsky -

The Bank of Canada continues to slowly drain liquidity after flooding the system with a firehose of cash during the pandemic. Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem announced the end of Canada’s QE program (also known as money printing). Furthermore, in Macklems words, “We expect to begin increasing our policy...

Steve Saretsky -

Consumer price inflation ripped higher in September, surging 4.4% year-over-year, the fastest pace of price increases in 18 years. Let’s discuss this further. We have an inflation problem and the Bank of Canada remains of the view that inflation will be transitory. Although they really can’t say otherwise, for if...

Get the Saretsky Report to your email every month

The Saretsky Report. December 2022