For the third consecutive month, national home sales have declined for July 2016. Sales activity has come in at 3.9 percent below the record set in April 2016, according to statistics released by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
While Great Vancouver and the Fraser Valley led the pack for sales activity being decreased, activity was down in more than half of all markets for July when compared with the previous month’s records. Transactions for Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley had peaked in February of this year, and have continually dropped off by 21.5 percent in Greater Vancouver and 28.8 percent in the Fraser Valley. These sales declines reflect the sales across much of the nation; and are not subject to only these areas.
Actual sales activity (not adjusted for season) was down by 2.9 percent year-over-year for July 2016 when comparing to July 2015 –this marks the first year-over-year decline since January of 2015. This is also the largest year-over-year decline we have seen since April 2013.
In almost sixty percent of all Canadian markets, sale levels were down this month – the trend led by Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Calgary and Edmonton. In Vancouver, the number of newly listed homes actually rose by 1.2 percent when compared for the previous month. Less than half of all local markets experienced the same rise in newly listed homes.
Prices of homes have also grown substantially. The biggest rises in year-over-year house prices came from two-storey single family homes (increased by 15.9 percent), townhouses/rowhomes (increased by 15.3 percent), one-storey single family homes (increased by 14.3 percent), and apartment units (increased by 11.1 percent).
With all of these numbers into consideration, it is no shock that home sales are declining considerably, with a lack of inventory and decrease in affordability being the top reasons.