Greater Vancouver Housing Sales off to a Brisk Start

Prices were also on the rise in most instances with the average Greater Vancouver sale hitting $456,952, up 6.9 per cent from December.

Condominium apartment units, with 848 transactions, accounted for the bulk of sales and were up 13.7 per cent from a year ago. Some 337 townhouses traded hands, up 20.4 per cent from January of 2005, and single-family home sales increased 9.6 per cent from January a year ago to 739.

"There's nothing too dramatic in the [results]," Helmut Pastrick, chief economist for Credit Union Central B.C. said in an interview. "It's still a seller's market, price pressures are still considerable."

January unit sales were lower than the 2,332 transactions recorded in December, however, Pastrick noted that on a seasonally adjusted basis, January was slightly better than December, which is a development he did not expect.

"I thought seasonally adjusted sales might have dipped lower than December, so that was a pleasant surprise," he added.

Pastrick said that based on January's results, markets could see a "nice pop up" of activity in February, on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Georges Pahud, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's president, said he was surprised to see sales volumes as high as they were, until he saw that the region's inventory had dropped.

"I think the shortage of listings created a bit of extra demand," Pahud said. "People realize that because there is such little inventory, they'd better move on and make a deal with what's available [in the market]."

Pahud added that realtors are also finding it "a bit of a challenge" helping clients because of the lack of new listings. However, he noted that Greater Vancouver inventories are close to the levels they were in January, 2005.

And while prices may be rising, Pahud said buyers are still finding deals below the $456,952 average. Some 68 per cent of transactions in January were done at prices below the average, and 15 per cent were done at prices below $250,000.

(prepared by Derrick Penner/Vancouver Sun)

JANUARY DETACHED HOUSING SALES

Units Sold- Change from last month

BURNABY 79 -2 $558,200 $113,000

COQUITLAM 83 +7 $472,500 $53,500

DELTA SOUTH 34 +12 $473,500 $81,750

MAPLE RIDGE/PITT MEADOWS 73 -24 $377,500 $45,000

NEW WESTMINSTER 12 -9 - -

NORTH VANCOUVER 60 -7 $713,527 $106,000

PORT COQUITLAM 29 -12 $427,500 $78,500

PORT MOODY 18 - 1 - -

RICHMOND 91 -25 $517,000 $53,600

SQUAMISH 11 -3 - -

SUNSHINE COAST 34 +9 $315,000 $31,000 VANCOUVER EAST 95 -40 $526,500 $114,000

VANCOUVER WEST 77 -25 $997,000 $162,000

WEST VANCOUVER 36 -25 $1,160,000 $312,500