Vancouver Real Estate Sales, Prices Down

English Bay on a sunny day.

Vancouver housing prices continue to slump as sales fell by 29.4% from this time last year, but there are signs of stability.

The total number of transactions in February was well below the 10-year average, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

The benchmark price for a detached house on the west side of Vancouver fell  by 9.2 per cent to $2 million. The benchmark sale price for detached homes in Richmond dropped  by nine per cent to $927,200.

The detached market in Vancouver west, Richmond and West Vancouver saw February sales drop off dramatically from the same period last year. Detached sales on the west side and in West Vancouver fell by 41.2 per cent and 54.4 per cent respectively. “On the west side and in Richmond they had hundred thousand dollar gains months over month for five consecutive months, and that was not sustainable,” says Eugen Klein, REBGV president.

“Our market is still cooler, as it has been for the past five to six months, but we do see anecdotally from the realtors and from surveys that activity has increased at open houses,” says Klein, “and that has started to translate a little bit into sales.”

While sales over active listings increased from a low in June, there are still 14,789 properties for sale in Greater Vancouver, 5.2 per cent more than in February 2012.

This story has been updated.