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18 Sep

Home sales should start to rise in the fall: BC Real Estate Association

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Posted by: Angela Lavender

Housing activists say as many as 3,000 units of affordable rental are being lost to make way for new towers in the Metrotown area.

Housing activists say as many as 3,000 units of affordable rental are being lost to make way for new towers in the Metrotown area.

Simon Little / Global News

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Housing sales across the province continued to cool in the month of August, according to the latest numbers from the British Columbia Real Estate Association.

READ MORE: Metro Vancouver’s home price-income gap is as high as $85K — and that’s for a townhouse

Those numbers indicate sales were down 26 per cent compared to the same month a year ago, and the average residential price of just under $670,000 was down 1.2 per cent from a year ago.

However, the association’s chief economist, Cameron Muir, says the numbers also indicate the downturn in housing demand induced by the tightening of the federal government’s mortgage stress-test rules is now largely behind us.

READ MORE: Housing market calmer in August: Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver

He says the B.C. housing market is evolving along the same path blazed by Ontario and Alberta, where the initial shock of the mortgage stress-test is already dissipating and home sales are increasing.

Home sales should start to rise in the fall: BC Real Estate Association