VANCOUVER -- Some facts on home sale figures for August released Friday by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, the first month of data available since the B.C. government brought in a tax on foreign buyers:
SALES DOWN, PRICES UP: Sales dropped by 26 per cent in August compared to the same month last year, but the composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver was $933,100, a 31.4 per cent jump compared to August 2015.
TOTAL SALES: The total number of homes sold in August was 2,489, down from 3,362 sales in August 2015, and 10.2 per cent less than the 2,771 sales in August 2014. Last month's sales were 3.5 per cent below the 10-year sales average for the month.
MONTH-TO-MONTH DROP: Sales were down in August by 22.8 per cent compared to July.
THREE-MONTH PRICES: Prices were up 4.9 per cent over the last three months.
NEW LISTINGS FLAT, YEAR-TO-YEAR: New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Metro Vancouver totalled 4,293 in August, a slight increase of 0.3 per cent compared with the same month in 2015.
LISTINGS DOWN MONTH-TO-MONTH: The total number of new listings was down 18.1 per cent from July.
TOTAL LISTINGS DOWN YEAR-TO-YEAR: The total number of properties listed on the centralized listing service MLS in Metro Vancouver in August was 8,506, down 21.9 per cent from a year earlier and up by 1.9 per cent from July.
DETACHED SALES SLIDE: Sales of detached properties in August dropped by 44.6 per cent from August 2015.
DETACHED PRICES SOAR: The benchmark price for detached properties increased 35.8 per cent from August 2015 to $1,577,300. The figure represents a 4.2 per cent increase over the last three months.
CONDOS SALES SLIP: Sales of apartment properties reached 1,343 last month, a decrease of 10.1 per cent compared to August 2015.
CONDO PRICES CLIMB: The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 26.9 per cent since August 2015 to $514,300. The figure represents a 6.1 per cent increase over the last three months.
