Home sales in British Columbia dropped 24.5% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2018.
There were 78,345 home sales in the quarter according to MLS data from the British Columbia Real Estate Association. That was well below the 103,758 units sold a year earlier and also down from the long-term average.
“BC home sales fell below the 10-year average of 84,800 units in 2018,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. “The sharp decline in affordability caused by the B20 mortgage stress test is largely to blame for decline in consumer demand last year.”
Despite the drop in sales, the annual average MLS residential price in BC was $712,508, up 0.4% year-over-year. Total sales dollar volume was $55.8 billion, a 24.2% decline from 2017.
December sales were down 39.1% year-over-year to 3,497 while prices in the month were down 5.2% to an average $695,647, taking the total sales dollar volume down 42.2% year-over-year to $2.4 billion.
Total active residential listings were up 33.3 per cent to 27,615 units in December, the highest December inventory since 2014 when 33,995 active residential listings were recorded.
BCREA reports that a total of 78,345 residential unit sales were recorded by the MLS® in 2018, a decline of 24.5 per cent from the 103,758 units sold in 2017. Read the full report here: https://t.co/vhJA3stt4a. #bcreaEcon pic.twitter.com/rQfL1dZT43
— BC Real Estate Association (@bcrea) January 15, 2019
