May 2016 Archive

The Canadian economy has been rebounding from a very slow end to 2015, with minimal growth just short of the 3% expected by most economists. However, growth is expected to slowly increase as a result of the wildfires in Alberta and their impact on oil production in the area. The third and fourth quarter are expected to recover well with rebuilding efforts underway, as well as an increase in government spending that will be realized in those months. 

In April, a record of 12,969 residential unit sales were recorded by the MLS system, which is an increase of over 30% from the same month last year! Home sales last month beat MArch's record of 12,5600 units, with a total dollar volume of $9.64 billion in April, which was also up 52.7% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, average residential house prices in the province is up over 17% year-over-year, to $743,640. 

A recent report from the BC Real Estate Board announced housing starts across Canada and the Province of British Columbia. While Canadian housing starts declined 5% in April after several months of robust construction, the number of housing starts in BC continued at a blistering pace, growing 14% to 45,591 units. This new construction is driven by both multi-family units as well as apartments (up 34%) while single-detached homes were up 2%.