House prices continue to decline

Housing prices continued to decline in the first quarter of 2009 in areas of Metro Vancouver, though some sectors saw stabilization, according to the realty firm Royal LePage's quarterly house-price survey released Wednesday.

Canvassing Vancouver, West Vancouver and North Vancouver, Royal LePage found that average prices were down 12 per cent over the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period of 2008.

West Vancouver saw prices dip 16.3 per cent across all types. The average price for a standard two-storey house, at $930,000, saw the steepest decline at, 17 per cent, from a year ago.

The average price for a standard two-storey house in North Vancouver, at $660,000, while down 14.3 per cent from a year ago, remained unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2008.

"All of a sudden prices have rolled back a couple of years," Bill Binnie, president of Royal LePage Northshore said in an interview. "Interest rates are better than they've ever been," which is attracting buyers.

He said the market is strongest in what he termed the first-time buyer range. Recent sales activity, which has climbed from last fall's extreme lows, has given the market some parameters around what people are willing to pay, he said. "It has frozen prices, at this point, which is a very positive thing for buyers and sellers. We can absolutely define the market."

However, sales volumes "are still nowhere near, nor will they be [in the near future] near what we saw in the frenzied market of 2001 to last summer."

Robyn Adamache, senior analyst for Metro Vancouver at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., added that overall Metro Vancouver sales in March were still well below sales levels for the same month in 2008 and 2006. Lower sales, coupled with high inventories of unsold homes in resale markets, and rising inventories of unsold new homes, will continue to put pressure on prices, she said.

(prepared by Derrick Penner/Vancouver Sun)