VANCOUVER, B.C. -- January 3, 2008 – Residential housing sales for 2007 are the second highest ever recorded by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). The REBGV reports that residential attached, detached and apartment property sales totalled 38,050 between January 1 and December 31, 2007. This marks a 7.2 per cent increase from 2006 and a 6.1 per cent decrease from 2005, the record-setting year with 40,530 sales.
“The continued strength of the real estate market is a reflection of the economic vitality seen throughout the province. With overall wages on the rise and unemployment in decline, buyers and sellers are left with a healthy and strong climate in which to operate,” says REBGV president Brian Naphtali.
Sales of apartment properties in 2007 increased 9.1 per cent to 16,456, compared with 15,088 sales in 2006, according to data from the Multiple Listings Service® (MLS®). Sales of attached units climbed 7.7 per cent to 6,799, compared with 6,310 sales in 2006. Detached property sales increased 4.9 per cent in 2007 to 14,795, compared with sales of 14,108 in 2006.
Overall, new listings for detached, attached and apartment properties increased 4 per cent in 2007 to 54,945 units, compared to the 52,818 listed in 2006.
The aggregate residential sales in December 2007 climbed to 1,897, a 12.5 per cent increase over the 1,686 December sales in 2006. These numbers are in contrast to each of the first five years of the decade where December sales exceeded 2,000.
Sales of apartment properties in December 2007 rose 21.6 per cent to 901, compared to 741 sales in December 2006. The benchmark price, as calculated by the MLSLink Housing Price Index®, of an apartment property increased 14.4 per cent from December 2006 to $377,579.
Attached property sales in December 2007 rose 1.6 per cent to 317, compared with 312 sales in December 2006. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 11.4 per cent from December 2006 to $456,941
December’s sales for detached properties increased 7.3 per cent to 679 in 2007, up from the 633 detached units sold in the same period of 2006. The December benchmark price for detached properties increased 13.5 per cent from December 2006 to $730,399.