November home sales in Vancouver area down 53% from same month last year, real estate board says

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) says November'stypically slow conditions were even more sluggish in 2022,as home sales dropped 53 per cent from the year beforeand 15 per cent from October.

The board says there were 1,614 total sales in the area it covers last month,36.9 per cent below the 10-year November sales average.

It warned such conditions could persist as inflation remains stubbornly high and the Bank of Canada is expected to hike interest rates even further.

"While it's always difficult to predict what the bank will do with certainty, this persistent inflationary backdrop sets up the Dec. 7rate announcement to be yet another increase," said Andrew Lis, REBGV's director of economics and data analytics,"making holiday-season home purchases something people may end up forgoing this year."

Anyone in the area looking to buylast month saw only 3,055 new listings of attached, detached or apartment properties,a 22.9 per cent fall from November 2021 and a 24.2 per cent drop from October 2022.

The composite benchmark price in the region sat at $1,131,600 last month, decreasing byless than one per cent from November 2021 and dropping by 1.5 per centfrom October 2022.

Over the last six months, thebenchmark has gone down by10.2 per cent.

The municipalities and areas covered by the REBGV are: Burnaby, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Richmond, South Delta, Squamish, the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver, West Vancouverand Whistler.