Bright July for home sales

July housing sales across Canada were the best on record for the month -- and Vancouver was no exception, the B.C. Real Estate Association says.

Six consecutive months of rising home sales and falling inventories have restored equilibrium to the provincial housing market, the association said.

That's the first equilibrium B.C. has enjoyed since April 2008, the association said.

"Record home sales in Metro Vancouver and Victoria propelled the province into balanced conditions last month," BCREA chief economist Cameron Muir said. "While conditions in many interior markets are getting much better, their reliance on the struggling resource sector and a recent spate of forest fires have contributed

to a more gradual space of improvement."

In Greater Vancouver, 4,197 units changed hands over the Multiple Listing Service last month, up 89.5 per cent from July 2008. The year-over-year price in the Vancouver area climbed 1.5 per cent.

The Fraser valley saw a 63.2-per-cent increase in unit sales last month. Prices eased 1.6 per cent.

In Victoria, unit sales climbed 49.5 per cent from July 2008.

Nationally, the Canadian Real Estate Association said there were 50,270 units sold over the multiple listing service last month, up 18.2 per cent from a year ago.

It marked the first time sales topped 50,000 in July.

"The difference in the resale housing market now, compared to the beginning of the year, is night and day and nowhere is this more evident than in the west," CREA president Dale Ripplinger said. "Homebuyers recognize that interest rates and prices have bottomed out, and are taking advantage of excellent affordability before prices and interest rates move higher."

A five-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most popular product among consumers, is still available for under four per cent at some financial institutions.

Variable rate mortgages, tied to prime, remain in the three per cent range and are not expected to rise until June.

The central bank has said it won't change its lending rate until then -- but it's not an ironclad promise.

The low rates seem to have worked and have the housing market even hotter than it was in 2007, a record year. July sales in 2009 were 3.9 per cent above the previous July high set in 2007.

It has been a stunning reversal for a real-estate market that had almost ground to a halt over the winter. MLS sales on a seasonally adjusted basis have risen for six straight months and are up 61.2 per cent off the decade-low set in January.

Sales are only off 1.4 per cent from the May 2007 peak.

(Source: Vancouver Province)