A year ago, tiny Powell River was posting the highest home sale and price increases in British Columbia and sales growth in areas like the Okanagan and central Vancouver Island were easily eclipsing Greater Vancouver.
In July 2020, Powell River, a ferry-dependant community of 20,700 about 100 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, had posted a 30 per cent year-over-year increase in home prices, and sales in the coastal community had soared 31 per cent from the same month a year earlier.
Last summer, the B.C. Real Estate Association (BCREA) reported that 70 per cent of home sales were taking place outside of Metro Vancouver, citing a migration of homebuyers from Greater Vancouver that began with the pandemic outbreak in March. The prevailing theory was that people working from home and those fearing the pandemic were seeking more spacious and affordable shelter in the outback.
Not this summer.
With vaccinations easing concerns about COVID-19, home buyers appear to be boomeranging back to the big city, according to the latest BCREA data.
July 2021 statistics shows that while home sales have slowed across the province, Greater Vancouver is one of only two markets where transactions were higher than in the same month a year earlier. Sales through the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver were up 5.4 per cent, while they declined 7.2 per cent across the province.
In the Central Okanagan, year-over-year sales in July were down 22.2 per cent, the biggest decline in the province, though sales rose by 9.8 per cent in the South Peace area, which, due to a quirk in board amalgamations, includes parts of northern B.C. and the south Okanagan.
July home sales on Vancouver Island fell 18.4 per cent compared to July 2020 and they were down 16 per cent in Victoria and off 17.1 per cent in the Kootenays in the same period.
And Powell River? July 2021 sales had fallen 25 per cent, year-over-year, though average prices had increased 10.2 per cent, to $449,115.
Across the province, the average composite home price in July was up 17.1 per cent from a year earlier to $891,687, the BCREA reports.
Average prices in Greater Vancouver trailed the provincial annual increase, with a 10.4 per cent hike to $1.04 million.
The B.C. housing market is slowing from the frantic pace that began last June and tailed off this April, the BCREA confirms.
“Provincial market activity slowed in July with both sales and listings declining on a seasonally adjusted basis,” said BCREA chief economist Brendon Ogmundson. “While sales remain robust, listings activity continues to be a concern as inventories trend near record lows.”
