BC home sales, prices will continue to rise: report
Posted April 19, 2016 8:29 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Central 1 Credit Union predicts BC’s home sales and prices “will reach a new zenith this year, with robust sales continuing through 2018.”
“Red-hot housing demand in Metro Vancouver and an up cycle on Vancouver Island will continue to underpin provincial housing momentum,” says senior economist Bryan Yu.
He expects home sales and prices will continue to rise through 2018.
Central 1 has upwardly revised its Metro Vancouver forecast, saying it has “far surpassed” the prediction made late last year. Yu now predicts a 22 per cent sales increase and a 13 per cent gain in the median price for all types of homes to $668,000. He thinks prices for single-detached houses will surge 23 per cent to more than $1.1 million.
Yu is blunt about the prospects for most buyers.
“The romanticized view of a single-family detached home for every family is antiquated and increasingly illusory,” adding “the dream of a single-family detached home in Metro Vancouver is going to remain just a dream for most buyers.”
He cites rising prices and a lack of land as factors that are leading to more condos and fewer standalone houses being built.
Central 1 acts like a central bank and trade association for BC and Ontario credit unions.
