The B.C. Real Estate Association (BCREA) says rising interest rates may take the bounce out of the bounceback in local home sales. Chief economist Brendon Ogmundson said that while year-to-year sales jumped 21.9 per cent from June 2022 to June 2023, and average values rose as well, grey clouds are on the horizon.
“June home sales continued to outperform expectations, following a very strong rebound in May,” Ogmundson said in a BCREA news release. “However, rising interest rates will likely dampen home sales activity in the coming months.”
The BCREA housing market update compared the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board (CADREB) to 10 other real estate boards across the province. Locally, home sales jumped 32.6 per cent from June 2022 to June 2023. That was the second highest increase behind the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) at 52.2 per cent. FVREB includes home sales in North Delta, Surrey, White Rock, Langley, Abbotsford, and Mission.
Year to year, Chilliwack’s average value (AV) rose three per cent to $791,498. The South Peace River saw the biggest increase at 18.2 per cent followed by the Fraser Valley (7.1 per cent), BC Northern (4.6 per cent), Vancouver (4.6 per cent) and Kootenay (4.3 per cent).
The BCREA also took a look at active listings and found Chilliwack wanting. From June 2022 to June 2023 no real estate board experienced a sharper drop than Chilliwack’s minus 22 per cent. The Fraser Valley was next at minus 15 per cent and Greater Vancouver was the only other real estate board seeing a dip at minus 7.9 per cent. The other eight real estate boards saw active listing increases ranging from 3.4 per cent in Kamloops to 29 per cent in Powell River.
“Active listings in the province were above 30,000 units for the first time since September 2022, but were still down 1.2 per cent compared to this time last year, and essentially flat month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted basis,” Ogmundson noted.
Year-to-date, the B.C. residential sales dollar volume of $39.4 billion is down 26.1 per cent compared with the same period in 2022. Residential unit sales are down 21.1 per cent and the average residential multi-listing service (MLS) price is down 6.4 per cent to $976,885.
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