Landcor 2008 Report - Highlights

These highlights are taken from the Landcor report on the BC real estate market in 2008. See here.

Provincial Overview - 2008 in review

2008’s residential sales count is similar to the total sales generated in 2002, dropping to 113,654 sales in 2008, compared to 115,314 in 2002. This is a 28% drop from 2007’s total sales of 158,272, and 31% down from the peak year of 164,315 sales in 2005.

Detached home and vacant land sales saw the greatest decreases in total sales this year when
compared to 2007, dropping 35% to 46,164 units and 33% to 11,749 units. Condos experienced the smallest decline in total number of units sold in 2008, down 24% to 35,097 from 2007’s total of 46,099 (the highest annual sales count on record for this property type).

Regionally, the Kootenays, Okanagan and BC North/Northwest markets dropped 38%, 36%
and 34% from their respective previous year sales counts to 4,950, 16,710 and 9,067 sales.
Greater Vancouver saw the smallest decline in total number of units sold, down 24% to 48,644 from 2007’s total of 63,827.

The total sales values in BC Residential real estate fell 22.5% from 2007’s total value to $48.186 billion. This puts 2008’s real estate transaction value in third place, behind 2007 and 2006, which were record breaking years for the province of BC. Despite the drastic declines experienced in the end of the third quarter and through Q4 08, average sales prices in the province are up 10% over last year, averaging $323,968, up from $294,180 in 2007. When looking at the median sales price a similar statistic emerges with 2008 up 9% over 2007, at $349,900 from $320,000 in the previous year.

Out-of-province buyers sit tight in 2008.

Down 37% from levels enjoyed in 2007, out-of-province purchases fell from 9,375 to 5,891 in 2008. The most significant decrease came from Canadian buyers in provinces other than BC, Alberta and Ontario. This buyer group had 60% less sales than in 2007, down from 1,111 to only 444. Albertans remain the most significant market of BC property purchasers from outside our borders, representing 69% of all out-of-province purchases, totalling 4,061 sales.

Alberta buyers continue to shop close to home with 33% and 30% of purchases in the Okanagan and Kootenay region in 2008. The preferred property type for Albertans remains the condominium, representing 37% of purchases (1,496 sales), followed by vacant land at 27% (1,077 sales) and detached homes at 22% (881 sales).