Greater Vancouver home sales start to tick up, with prices holding steady

Home sales in the Greater Vancouver area are starting to return to more typical levels after dipping to four-decade lows in April, while prices continue to edge up from 2019.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says residential sales last month reached 2,443, a 64.5 per cent jump from May and a 17.6 per cent year-over-year increase.

The figure still hovered 21.9 per cent below the 10-year sales average for June.

Board chair Colette Gerber said realtors and their clients are getting more used to exploring and showcasing homes remotely through video tours and floor-plan reviews as buyers and sellers alike acclimate to health protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Much more of the real estate transaction is happening virtually today," Gerber said Friday in a news release.

"Over the last three months, home buyers and sellers have become more comfortable operating within the physical distancing and other safety protocols in place."

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released a report in May that said the number of new homes being built and sold across Canada will remain below the levels they were at before COVID-19 until 2022 at least, and prices won't get back to where they were for another two years either.

New home listings rose 21.8 per cent to 5,787 in June compared with a year earlier, a leap of 57.1 per cent from May, the board said.

The sales-to-active listings ratio was 21.4 per cent, well outside the range analysts consider as signalling potential for downward pressure on prices.

Prices have held steady over the last few months, with the composite benchmark index price at $1.03 million in June. The figure marks a 0.3 per cent dip compared to May but a 3.5 per cent boost from June 2019.

In April, home sales in the Greater Vancouver area hit their lowest levels in nearly 40 years due to fallout from COVID-19, and experts said price declines could be expected to follow eventually.