January home sales down 55% from year earlier, 21% from December: REBGV

Every month, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver puts out a report detailinghow many residential properties have been sold in the region themonth before, and every month since 2009, at least 1,050 homes have traded hands.

For the first time since the financial crisis 12 years ago, the REGBV saysJanuary home sales fell below that mark less than half of what they were the year beforeand down 21 per cent from December.

The board says sales for the month totalled 1,022, a 55 per cent drop from the previous January.

Brian Yu, chief economist for Vancouver Credit Union Central 1, says high interest rates mean few people want to sell, and even fewer are looking to borrow and buy.

"For many consumers, it's just really a question of not being able to get into the market at the current time," said Yu in an interview.

The number of homes that changed hands last month was also 42.9 per cent below the 10-year January sales average.

The board also attributed the quiet month to mortgage rates, which have risen rapidly over the last year and weighed on homebuyer intentions.

Home prices have been slowly dropping across Vancouver's Lower Mainland for several months, a trend Yu says he expects to continue, but he doesn't expect the real estate market to crash completely.

"People are still gainfully employed. A lot of employers are still looking for staff," he said. "So the conditions of a substantial decline in prices, in our view, really isn't there right now."

Despite the downward trends, buying a home in the Greater Vancouver area remains an expensive prospect.

The REGBV found the region's composite benchmark price was more than $1.1 million, a 6.6 per cent decrease over January 2022 and a 0.3 per cent fall compared with December 2022, and the average price of a detached home is $1.9 million.

The total number of homes currently listed for sale on its listing service is 7,478, a 32.1 per cent increase compared with January 2022 and a 1.3 per cent increase compared with December 2022.