Home prices in the Vancouver region rose 5.3 percent in August, as home buyers continued to satisfy demand held over from the quiet spring season.
Today the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reported that its MLS benchmark price rose to $1,038,700, up 5.3 percent from a year earlier. The benchmark condo price for August was $685,800, up 4.5 percent over the previous year. Meanwhile, the detached home segment saw its benchmark price rise 6.6 percent to $1,491,300.
REBGV Chair Colette Gerber described the August market as competitive, with low interest rates driving activity and limited home listings keeping prices marching upward.
There were 3,047 homes sold across the Vancouver region in August, up 36.6 percent from a year earlier and nearly 20 percent above the 10-year average for sales in that month. The total for August was only slightly lower than the number of transactions seen in July.
While the consistently impressive market activity observed through the summer months is heartening, Gerber was cautious about her outlook for the fall.
“People who put their home buying and selling plans on hold in the spring have been returning to the market throughout the summer. Like everything else in our lives these days, the uncertainty COVID-19 presents makes it challenging to predict what will happen this fall,” said Gerber in a media release.
A noteworthy trend that continued to be evident in the August sales data is the relative strength of the detached home market compared to the region’s condo market.
There were 1,095 detached homes sold in Greater Vancouver last month, up 55.1 percent from August 2019. The condo market, at 1,332 sales, saw more total transaction volume than its low-rise counterpart, but only logged a 19.4 percent increase in sales from a year ago.
