The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a total of 6,743 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) across the province in August, a 26.4 percent decrease from the same month last year. The average MLS® residential price in BC was $669,776, down 1.2 percent from August 2017. Total sales dollar volume was $4.5 billion, a 27.3 percent decline from August 2017.

“The downturn in housing demand induced by the mortgage stress-test is now largely behind us,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. “The BC housing market is evolving along the same path blazed by Ontario and Alberta, where the initial shock of the mortgage stress-test is already dissipating, leading to increasing home sales.”

Year-to-date, BC residential sales dollar volume was down 19.9 percent to $41 billion, compared with the same period in 2017. Residential unit sales decreased 21.3 percent to 57,674 units, while the average MLS® residential price was up 1.7 percent to $719,064.

Copyright BCREA – reprinted with permission