Home sales climb

The Greater Vancouver housing market "has entered a more moderate and balanced state," with sales and benchmark prices both up in April compared to March, says the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

The figures released Monday showed residential property sales in the region covered by the board totalled 2,963 in April, a 31-per-cent increase over March.

As well, the average benchmark price in the same area was $499,021 in April -- up 2.7 per cent from the benchmark price of $485,845 in March.

The board says that's the first significant month-over-month increase in the benchmark price so far this year. And the April increase in sales is notable because historically, March sales are greater than April's.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver covers Vancouver, West and North Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, Coquitlam, South Delta, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Squamish and the Sunshine Coast. Among the areas not included are Surrey and the Fraser Valley.

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's figures were not released Monday.

The latest figures show people are "taking advantage of low interest rates and the lower pricing of product," said REBGV president Scott Russell.

"It's encouraging. In the overall picture, we're seeing more stability coming into the market. The number of new listings has been decreasing over the past six months and the number of sales has been increasing since January."

The result, he said, is a "relatively stable market in which homes are being realistically priced."

He said the trends over the last couple of months "offer a much more comfortable, historically normal set of conditions."

According to the release, for the sixth consecutive month, new listings for detached, attached and apartment properties declined in Greater Vancouver, down 33.7 per cent to 4,649 in April 2009 compared to April 2008, when 7,010 new units were listed.

And while sales were up this April over the preceding month, they're still down by eight per cent from the 3,218 sales recorded in April 2008.

Meanwhile, Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban economics and real estate at the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C., said lower interest rates have brought people back into the market .

"But you still have the fundamentals of the economy that haven't magically got 100-per-cent better," Somerville said.

So people shouldn't be counting on a return to the boom days any time soon, he said.

"I think there's a difference between we're not dropping anymore versus we're on a comeback," he said. "And I think it's pretty hard to see how you get a comeback without an improvement in the economy."

With respect to the benchmark price, Somerville said other statistics show prices are continuing to fall in some areas of Greater Vancouver.

"Their [REBGV] numbers are not the same as what we're seeing from some other places, so I think it is hard to make sense of what's going on there," Somerville said.

According to the report, sales of detached properties declined eight per cent in April to 1,190 from the 1,293 detached sales recorded during the same period in 2008. The benchmark price for detached properties declined 12.2 per cent from April 2008 to $675,268.

Sales of apartment properties in April 2009 declined 10.5 per cent to 1,179, compared to 1,317 sales in April 2008, with the benchmark price of an apartment property declining 12.6 per cent from April 2008 to $340,203.

Attached property sales in April 2009 are down 2.3 per cent to 594, compared with the 608 sales in April 2008. The benchmark price decreased 9.7 per cent between April 2008 and April 2009 to $431,759.

The report also noted that bright sales spots in April were Vancouver West (detached), Port Coquitlam, Richmond and Vancouver West (attached), and North Vancouver (apartments).

("Greater Vancouver home sales climb" prepared by Brian Morton/Vancouver Sun)