Real estate marking cooking once again - Lower Mainland

The real-estate market in the Lower Mainland is cooking once again.

Despite the gloomy economy, 4,114 residential properties were sold last month in the area covered by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver -- a record for the month of July.

The total outpaced the 4,023 sales in July 2003 -- the only other time July sales exceeded the 4,000 mark, according to data compiled by the REBGV.

"We're at historic lows for mortgage rates, and there's been a pretty good price correction," Richmond realtor Jake Moldowan told The Province on Wednesday.

"If you look at prices from a year and a half ago to today, they have corrected." Housing prices last month were higher than at the beginning of 2009, but still below their July 2008 level.

The benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver increased 9.2 per cent to $528,821 in July from $484,211 in January, said the REBGV.

But home prices compared with July 2008 levels were down five per cent.

"December, January and February were three of the toughest months we've had," said Moldowan, who also is president-elect of the REBGV.

"In the last three months, the market has stabilized. Our sales-to-listings ratio is very good and that tells us we're in a balanced market." The REBGV said, on average, it takes 48 days for a home in the region to sell.

"We look at anything of 60 days or less as a decent market," Moldowan said.

He cautioned not to place too much stock in the year-over-year numbers because there tend to be pockets of hot and cold in the marketplace.

"When you take a look at Port Coquitlam that only had 22 sales [of detached homes] last [July], and now they have 74, you have a huge upswing" of 236 per cent, he noted.

"You have to take that with some perspective; it was so tough before." Moldowan said that shows the importance of having a local realtor who is finely tuned in to his or her specific market.

He said the overall market is getting a boost from an influx of first-time buyers.

The demand created by first-time buyers has fuelled a market of "people who are already in are stepping up to something larger," said Moldowan.

The positive trend was recorded in the Fraser Valley as well.

The area saw the highest number of real-estate transactions ever recorded for the month of July.

There were 2,089 sales processed on the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's Multiple Listings Service, an increase of 62.3 per cent compared with the 1,284 sales in July 2008.

The FVREB's previous highest July was in 2005, with 2,051 sales.

("L. Mainland real-estate market cooks" prepared by Andy Ivens/Vancouver Province)