Vancouver housing market cooling… errr… stable?

BuzzBuzzHome
July 5, 2010

Vancouver home sales fell 30 per cent last month compared to a year earlier, although prices continued to rise. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says there were 2,972 sales in June.

Is this a cold market, or a stable market? “Activity in June marked a healthy balance between the near record setting pace of June 2009 and the considerably slower activity witnessed in June 2008, a period of recession as we all know,” REBGV president Jake Moldowan said in a statement.

What happened? It appears that new listings dropped 21 per cent in June as compared to May, potentially due to a rush of sellers in May trying to beat out the HST?

The board says the adjusted average selling price for a detached house rose 13 per cent to $795,000 while apartment-style condominiums were up 10 per cent a year earlier to $392,000.

Over the last 12 months, the overall benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver increased 11.8 per cent to $580,237 from $518,855 in June 2009, the survey said.