eSooecves

Suppl

RT is time for our
monthly review of the
state of the North
Shore real estate mar-
kets as the August fig-
ures are just in from the
Greater Vancouver Real
Estate Board.

In the month of August
there were no dramatic devel-
opments in terms of the sales
figures. Total dollar sales were
down from July for bath
North Vancouver detached
homes and North Vancouver
apartments and up for West
Vancouver detached and
North Van attached homes.

The Augusr figures for
West Van detached homes
were up 6% over August
1998, but tor the other three
markets sales were up at least
30% over the same month a
year ago. So the recovery from
last year’s slump appears to be
continuing across the board.

The exception to this pat-
tern is West Vancouver apart-
ments where sales dropped
significantly for the second
straight month to a level 32%
below last August.

This is a puzzling result in

Bese

CUFFS HSSHEEDEHHSOCRVOCEOS

economics

view of the strong sales figures
for West Van apartments earli-
er in the year and the strength
of the other housing markets
on the North Shore. However
I think the answer to the puz-
alc is to be found, nor on the
demand side, bur rather in the
supply figures, In fact, across
the different North Shore
housing markets the supply
situation is the interesting
story because it is looks as if it
is having a major Influence on
prices and sales in very ditler-
ent ways,

Perhaps the prime example
of this phenomenon can be
found in North Vancouver
detached homes. As you can
see from the accompanying,
graph, the number of active
listings in this market has been
quite low since late last year

and dipped below 350 units in
August toa level 22% below
that of last August.

E think this is probably the
main reason that sales of
detached homes have dropped
for the last two months —
there just aren’: enough hous-
es for sale. It would aiso seem
likely that this shortage in sup-
ply is putting upward pressure
on prices. One indication that
this is nappening is that aver-
age selling price has risen
more or less steadily over the
past nine months, Untess
there is a surge in new listings
this month I think we will see
more price increases in this
market.

The supply situation is
quite different tor West
Vancouver resale detached
homes, As the accompanying
graph shows, the number of
active listings has been climb-
ing since the start of the year
and is now at 458, which is
considerably higher than the
historical average of just over
400. As a result, one would
expect prices to remain fairly
weak in this marker and the
average selling price figures

See WV page 6B

Active Listings
North Vancouver Detached

Eek shia cates
97 A

Aug-98

“99 Aug-

Friday, September 10, 1999 — North Shore News - 55

=

NEWS pheto.Cledy Goodman

Toy boat

ABC Ferry boat entering Horseshoe Bay after making the crossing from
Nanaimo is dwarfed by the North Shore mountains towering behind.

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