North of the Fraser Residential Real Estate: February 2018 Infographic
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s February residential market stats reflect a dominant and strong multi-family market.
The February statistics from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver indicate a significant drop in sales volume relative to historical averages, while prices continue to increase for multi-family product and prices for detached homes remained flat.
REBGV reports a total of 2,207 residential deals completed in February 2018, which is a 21.4% increase over January 2018, but a 9% decrease from the 2,424 sales in February 2017. Overall, last months sales volume was 14.4% below the 10 year February sales average. This decrease in volume was not distributed equally across all product types. The single family home market was the hardest hit with sales volume down 39.4% over the 10 year February sales average. Multi-family product performed better with attached/townhouse product sales volume down by 6.8% and apartment/condo sales actually outpacing the 10 year February average by 5.5%.
Benchmark pricing for condo and townhouse product continued to accelerate at the torrid pace that we have seen in those markets for some time now, while prices for detached homes saw no change, remaining flat from what was observed last month.
With rising interest rates and new mortgage qualification rules reducing consumer purchasing power, it appears that demand (and subsequently prices) for more affordable multifamily product will not weaken anytime soon. The single family market, however, will continue to see a softening of prices and decreased volume as consumer’s ability to obtain financing for single family homes continues to diminish.
The ongoing shift in what end product consumers are able to afford (and corresponding price increases) will continue to provide upward pressure on increasingly rare transit-oriented multi-family developments sites North of the Fraser River. Many of Frontline Real Estate Services’ developer clients are aggressively pursuing these opportunities and remain optimistic about multi-family development despite the somewhat bleak picture being painted in the single family market today.
View the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s entire stats package for February 2018 here.
Please note: areas covered by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver include: Whistler, Sunshine Coast, Squamish, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and South Delta.
This representation is based in whole or in part on data generated by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver which assume no responsibility for its accuracy.
