![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/vancouver-housing-market-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto:\u00a0Lee Robinson<\/a>\/Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Greater Vancouver\u2019s housing market may finally be bottoming out.<\/p>\n Bryan Yu, deputy chief economist of Central 1 Credit Union, tells Livabl that it looks like home sales activity across the province \u2014 and Greater Vancouver in particular \u2014 appears to be scraping the bottom of the cycle.<\/p>\n \u201cPrices are still expected to drift lower over the second half of the year,\u201d he adds in an email.<\/p>\n\n In June, Greater Vancouver home sales remained down 14.4 percent from year-ago levels and the benchmark price of a home declined 9.6 percent to $998,700.<\/p>\n These trends were also reflected in province-wide data.<\/p>\n BC sales activity in June declined by 11.8 percent on a year-over-year basis while prices fell 4 percent, according to the British Columbia Real Estate Association.<\/p>\n But Yu notes that this weaker month of June followed stronger showings in April and May.<\/p>\n \u201cThe latest dip comes after a couple of gains, so it looks on the surface that the bottom is in,\u201d Yu explains.<\/p>\n More importantly, there are two factors that should help stem the bloodletting.<\/p>\n \u201cDeclining mortgage [rates] are providing a lift to some purchasers, although pass-through is constrained by the stubbornly high posted rate (stress test constraint),\u201d notes Yu.<\/p>\n The Bank of Canada\u2019s qualifying rate, based on an average of posted five-year fixed rates from the country\u2019s six biggest banks, declined for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n This rate \u2014 now 5.19 percent after dropping from 5.34 \u2014 has been setting the bar for mortgage stress tests in Canada, which require borrowers to qualify for a loan at a rate higher than what is being offered on contract.<\/p>\n