Home sales and listings continue to follow historical averages

Home sales and listings continue to follow historical averages

Residential property sales in Greater Vancouver in Feb 2014 shows 40.8% increase compared to Feb 2013

VANCOUVER, B.C. – March 4, 2014 – In the first two months of 2014, the Greater Vancouver housing market has maintained the steady pace set throughout 2013.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver reached 2,530 on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in February 2014.

This represents a 40.8 per cent increase compared to the 1,797 sales recorded in February 2013, and a 43.8 per cent increase compared to the 1,760 sales in January 2014.

Last month’s sales total mirrors the 10-year sales average for February of 2,547, with just 17 sales separating the two figures.
The sales-to-active-listings ratio currently sits at 18.9 per cent in Greater Vancouver, a 4.9 percent increase from last month.

“Home buyer demand picked up in February, which is consistent with typical seasonal patterns in our housing market,” said Sandra Wyant, REBGV president. “We typically see home buyers become more active in and around the spring months.”

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 4,700 in February. This represents a 2.8 per cent decline compared to the 4,833 new listings reported in February 2013 and a 12.1 per cent decline from the 5,345 new listings in January. Last month’s new listing count was 0.5 per cent below the region’s 10-year new listing average for the month.

The total number of properties currently listed for sale on the Greater Vancouver MLS® is 13,412, a 9.3 per cent decline compared to February 2013 and a 6.4 per cent increase compared to January 2014.

“With the market continuing to perform at a steady, balanced pace, it’s important for home sellers to ensure their homes are priced correctly for today’s conditions,” Wyant said.

 

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is currently $609,100. This represents a 3.2 per cent increase compared to February 2013.

Sales of detached properties in February 2014 reached 1,032, an increase of 46.6 per cent from the 704 detached sales recorded in February 2013, and a 6.3 per cent decrease from the 1,101 units sold in February 2012. The benchmark price for detached properties increased 3.5 per cent from February 2013 to $932,900.

Sales of apartment properties reached 1,032 in February 2014, an increase of 35.8 per cent compared to the 760 sales in February 2013, and a 1.2 per cent increase compared to the 1,020 sales in February 2012. The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 3.6 per cent from February 2013 to $373,300.

Attached property sales in February 2014 totalled 466, an increase of 39.9 per cent compared to the 333 sales in February 2013, and a 9.9 per cent increase from the 424 attached properties sold in February 2012. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 0.6 per cent between February 2013 and 2014 to $458,300.

 

To download the full report please visit:

http://issuu.com/annaasi/docs/feb_2014_stats_release_for_media_fi

 

Cat: REBGV, Vancouver Real Estate, Market Update

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City unveils $1-billion plan for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

City unveils $1-billion plan for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
Anti-poverty critic fears low-income community will be ‘demolished’

Vancouver’s troubled Downtown Eastside is about to get a facelift.

The City of Vancouver unveiled an ambitious, $1-billion, 30-year plan for the neighbourhood Thursday.

The complex, 183-page proposal would see 4,400 new or replacement social housing units built in the area. There would also be a dramatic increase in condos near Clark and Hastings, where buildings could be 12 to 15 storeys high.

The city said it hopes to revitalize Hastings as a retail street, yet retain the low-income character of much of the neighbourhood.

It projects that housing units in the area will rise from 15,300 to 19,850 in 10 years, and 27,950 in 30 years. The population would rise from about 18,000 today to 30,000 to 35,000 in 2044.

“The plan over the next 10 years will be an increase in the number of these mixed-use projects that we’re trying to achieve in the Downtown Eastside,” said Brian Jackson, Vancouver’s general manager of planning and development.

“It will include affordable housing, it will include a number of opportunities for market rental, and market condos. You’re going to see a mixture.”

The controversial part of the plan looks to be a condo-free zone that stretches along Hastings from Carrall Street in Gastown to Healey Avenue in Strathcona.

Any new structures in the rental-only area have to be at least 60 per cent social housing.

The no-condo zone extends to historic Japantown around Oppenheimer Park.

Jackson said the aim is ensure that low-income people in the Downtown Eastside won’t be displaced.

“The plan is attempting to achieve balance,” he said after a media briefing.

“We have to provide the assurance that through the plan we are making sure the people who want to continue to live in the Downtown Eastside have that opportunity. But it has to be in improved forms of housing.”

In the plan, the Downtown Eastside isn’t just the area around Hastings and Main; it includes surrounding neighbourhoods such as Gastown, Chinatown, Victory Square, Strathcona and Thornton Park.

It was put together during the past two years by city staff in tandem with a city-appointed committee that was mandated to have at least half of its members from the low-income community.

Asked where the money for such an ambitious plan will come from, Jackson said the city will “need partnerships in order to achieve it.”

“We need the other levels of government, we need the non-profits, we need the faith-based groups,” he said. “And we need the development community to help make this real.”

But getting the money to build the social housing called for in the plan may not be easy.

Rich Coleman is the provincial minister in charge of housing. Asked if the province has the money to build 4,400 social housing units in the Downtown Eastside, he said: “No, we don’t. And we don’t do housing that way anymore, either.”

Coleman said the province’s strategy is to “diversify” the way money is spent on low-income housing, such as providing rent assistance for about 10,000 families around the province.

 

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Cat: Vancouver Real Estate, Vancouver Downtown

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