Housing sales across B.C. totalled 5,661 units through MLS in March, reports the BC Real Estate Association. This is up 6.6 per cent from February but down 17 per cent from March of last year.
The average MLS price for a detached house was $540,662, up 2 per cent from February but down 1 per cent from a year earlier. Year-to-date, sales volumes are off 22 per cent to $7.2 billion from the first quarter of 2012, while the number of sales is down 18.8 per cent to 13,572 units.
The biggest average price increase in March was in the Northern Lights area, which is anchored by Dawson Creek, with a 9.4 per cent increase from a year earlier, to $297,000. The biggest average price drop: Victoria, down 4.5 per cent to $552,000 for a detached house.
