Still Going Strong
It was no surprise that the BC Housing Market was extremely strong from April to June, the strongest seen in over a decade.
Our Q2 Residential Sales Summary shows regional data as compared to 2021-Q1 and 2020-Q2 along with Economist, Will Dunning sharing his insights on housing market indicators affecting the real estate market across the province.
Looking into Q3 and Beyond
There are several powerful negative factors that are likely to curtail sales during the third quarter:
- Severe weather and the wildfires,
- The interest rate increases that happened earlier this year,
- The higher interest rate that is now being used in the mortgage stress tests (now 5.25% versus the previous 4.79%), and
- A possible fourth wave for Covid-19.
That said, there are three important factors that should result in strong sales in the fourth quarter and into next year:
- While affordability has been reduced, it is still favourable in historic terms,
- The “sorting process” (changing work arrangements are encouraging many of us to consider changing our living arrangements), and
- Continuing high volumes of housing completions will result from increased housing starts
Quarterly & Monthly Sales Summary, By Region
If this is the first time reading our quarterly report, you’ll find that it compares average and median pricing for key residential property types (attached, detached, condo) on a regional level
Landcor’s Q2 data (regional charts) shows consumer interest to shift to low-density housing options. In consequence, price growth is now much more rapid for detached homes than for condominium apartments. This can be seen in the price data for all of the province and for each of the regions (except for BC North/Northwest, where the price data is highly volatile, due to low sales numbers).
Prices for attached homes are rising more rapidly than for apartments, but less rapidly compared to detached homes. As has been seen previously during the Covid-19 period, price growth is strongest for areas that might receive buyers who are moving away from the GVRD.
