April didn’t do much for the BC housing market

There were 8,203 residential homes sales across British Columbia in April, much the same as the previous month.

The British Columbia Real Estate Association says that sales were down 16.8% year-over-year while the average residential MLS price was up 0.2% year-over-year at $730,507.

Total dollar volume of sales in April was $5.99 billion, down 16.7% from a year earlier.

"BC home sales were essentially unchanged in April compared to March, albeit up nearly 1 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis," said Cameron Muir, BCREA's Chief Economist. "The impact of more burdensome mortgage qualifications for conventional borrowers is expected to soften over the next several months as potential buyers adjust both their finances and expectations."

Supply of homes in BC remains low by historical standards although April did show a 4% rise compared to March.

Year-to-date, BC residential sales dollar volume was down 6.7% to $19.9 billion, compared with the same period in 2017. Residential unit sales decreased 11.8% to 27,135 units, while the average MLS residential price was up 5.7% to $731,661.

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