A total of 6,661 residential unit sales were recorded by the MLS® in February, up 19.4 per cent over February last year and up 52 per cent compared with January, according to a British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) report published March 13.
The average resale home price in BC rose to $639,405 in February, up 4.5 per cent from the same month last year.
“Consumer demand remained robust in February on the strength of rock-bottom interest rates and improving economic conditions,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA’s chief economist.
“After several years of below-average activity, home sales are now trending above long-term levels.”
The BC figures far outstrip the Canada-wide increase of just 2.7 per cent compared with February last year and meagre 1 per cent rise over January’s nationwide home sales, reported by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) the same day.
Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist, said, “Sales came in below the 10-year average for the month of February in two-thirds of all local markets [across Canada].
“That said, the opposite was true in a few large urban markets in British Columbia and Ontario, despite a shortage of listings there, which is fuelling prices higher.”
The assocations' reports came on the same day that both the CREA and RBC Economics predicted strong growth in the BC housing market in 2015. For the full outlook, click here.
