Condo sales in Metro Vancouver are holding their own even as buyers of detached homes and townhouses continue to wait and see where the market might be headed in the new year.

Condo sales are holding their own even as buyers sit out the real estate market
Condo sales accounted for more than half the property sales in Metro Vancouver In November.

 
More than half of the 2,214 residential properties sold in the region in November were condo apartments. The 1,200 condos sales last month is 1.9 per cent more than the 1,178 that were sold in October. Sales of detached homes dropped 2.1 per cent in the same period and townhouse sales slipped 6.7 per cent.
The benchmark price for a typical apartment in Metro Vancouver stayed steady $512,100, the same as in October. That’s 18 per cent better than November, 2015.
“Demand, relative to supply, for detached homes is lower right now than demand for townhomes and apartments,” said Dan Morrison, the president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. “This is causing prices to remain stable, or flat, for townhomes and apartments, while detached homes are seeing modest month-over-month decline.”
Indeed, the benchmark price for a detached home in Metro Vancouver dipped 2.2 per cent from October to $1,511,100. But that’s still 23 per cent higher than a year ago.
Overall, housing sales slipped .9 per cent from October, and 37.2 per cent from a year ago. The total number of properties listed for sale also went down 8.3 per cent from the previous month.
That’s helped keep the ratio of sales to active listings at a healthy 26.4 per cent, two per cent higher than October. As long as that ratio stays above 20 per cent, home prices can continue to feel upward pressure. But they start to go down if the ratio goes below 12 per cent for a sustained period of time.
“While 2016 has been anything but a normal year for the Metro Vancouver housing market, supply and demand totals have returned to more historically normal levels over the last few months,” said Morrison.

Condo sales still strong in New West and Burnaby

We’re seeing pretty much the same trends in New West and Burnaby.
The benchmark price for condo sales in New West went up .8 per cent over last month to $380,000, and 2.5 per cent to $539,200 in the east end of Burnaby. The benchmark price for a typical detached home in New West dropped 1.8 per cent from October; but that’s still 18.7 per cent better than a year ago.
November’s full stats