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Kelowna Real Estate Sales Up in March

Posted On: 2009-04-28

B.C. real estate sales continue to rally from January trough

By Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun April 16, 2009
 

British Columbia real estate sales in March still paled in comparison to the same month a year ago, but continued to tick up from the depths of January, the B.C. Real Estate Association reported Wednesday.

Across the province, realtors tracked 5,464 Multiple-Listing-Service sales, which represented a 25-per-cent decline from 7,319 sales recorded in March 2008.

However, the number seems to indicate a slowing of the sales decline from February, a month in which the volume of transactions were down by almost half from February 2008.
“[March sales are] actually quite an improvement from what we experienced in the winter months, and really, right now are trending on what we might expect,” said Cameron Muir, chief economist for the B.C. Real Estate Association, in an interview.

Extrapolating March sales out over the rest of the year, Muir said sales will trend at levels somewhere around sales levels experienced during 2000-01.

“That's what we would expect given a weaker economy [and] rising unemployment.”

From November to January, Muir said sales levels resembled the mid-1980s, which saw much worse economic conditions.
Muir said unemployment levels at the beginning of the current decade were higher than they are today, though “we’re expecting, of course, continued erosion of employment levels over the coming months.”

However, he said the combination of falling prices and interest rates continues to draw buyers back into the market.
At a provincial level, Muir said, while prices have dropped 12 per cent, combined with lower interest rates the monthly cost of a standard mortgage on the average home has declined 24 per cent, assuming a 20-per-cent down payment and the average posted interest rate.

“That certainly is a situation which potential homebuyers find attractive,” Muir said.

The average home price in B.C. hit $424,122 in March, down just over 12 per cent from $483,291 in the same month a year ago.

The Okanagan Mainline region, which includes Kelowna and Vernon, and South Okanagan, which includes Penticton and Osoyoos, saw the steepest price declines in the 17-per-cent range.

In the Kelowna-Vernon corridor, the March average price was $344,845. In the South Okanagan, the average price was $296,023.

On Vancouver Island outside of Victoria, the average home price was $302,155, down 6.4 per cent from a year ago. Sales, at 417 units, were still down 38 per cent.
In Greater Vancouver, the average price of $616,496, down almost 14 per cent from a year ago. Sales in region were down 24 per cent at 2,310 units.

For the first three months of 2009, B.C. recorded 11,232 sales, which represents a 41-per-cent decline from the same period in 2008.

Muir said the last month was encouraging in that the Greater Vancouver region saw sales creep up and the number of new listings added to the inventory slow down. He said the ratio of sales to active listings in Greater Vancouver, at 14 per cent in March, was almost in reach of what economists would consider a balanced market.

“We can’t call it a balanced market going forward,” Muir said, “but it certainly is encouraging considering that that ratio was in the single digits a few months ago.”

Currently, he added, “there is much less downward pressure on prices than there was just two or three months ago.”

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