VANCOUVER – The British Columbia Real Estate Association says home sales in Vancouver have slowed but the overall housing market across the province is healthy.
Association chief economist Cameron Muir says 8,945 residential sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service in August.
He says that’s a 1.5 per cent increase compared to August 2015.
Muir points to the B.C. government’s newly introduced 15 per cent foreign buyer tax and the 3 per cent property transfer tax on homes over $2-million for slowing the top end of the Vancouver market last month.
But strong demand across most other regions of the province offset Vancouver’s drag, Muir says in a news release.
Although the total value of sales was down 6.7 per cent compared to last year, and the average B.C. home price skidded 8.1 per cent to $569,393, Muir says those numbers mainly reflect the slower Vancouver market.
“The decline in the average home price was due to a change in the composition and location of homes sold in the province,” he says.
The real estate association says the dip in the average price statistic reflects fewer supercharged prices from detached Vancouver properties and cooling sales in the city compared to the rest of B.C.