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February Home Sales Reflect Typical Consumer Demand

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a total of 6,580 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in February, down 31.7 per cent from the same period last year. Total sales dollar volume was $4.53 billion, down 39.7 per cent from February 2016. The average MLS® residential price in the province was $688,117, an 11.7 per cent decrease from the same period last year.

“Consumer demand has returned to a more typical level over the first two months of the year," said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. "While the home sales have declined nearly 32 per cent from the extraordinary performance of a year ago, last month's activity reflected the average for the month February since the year 2000."

“The average MLS® residential price for the province was down nearly 12 per cent from a record $779,419 in February 2016. However, this change is largely the result of a decline in the proportion of provincial sales originating from the Vancouver region. Last month, 37 per cent of BC home sales occurred in the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's area, compared to 44 per cent in February 2016.

Year-to-date, BC residential sales dollar volume was down 38.5 per cent to $7.3 billion, when compared with the same period in 2016. Residential unit sales declined 28.5 per cent to 11,067 units, while the average MLS® residential price was down 14.1 per cent to $660,943.

Copyright BCREA - reprinted with permission 

Where do Buyers come from?

This is one of the questions I am most frequently asked.  Where are the Buyers coming from? Are they from Alberta? Are they escaping Vancouver or the Lower Mainland? As you can see most of them are still coming from right here.

KREB REALTORS® collect buyer origin information when a property sells. KREB compiles this information and provides yearly reports to members. In 2016, REALTORS® confirmed 3515 buyers’ origins from a total of 3567 sales in the Kootenay Real Estate Board area. Although deemed accurate, KREB cannot guarantee the information contained within the report.