Hae REAL EstTaTvTe

B.C. house prices
begin to stabilize

THE SLOWDOWN in home
buying activity that began
during the spring is beginn-
ing to stabilize house prices
in British Columbia.

According to the most re-
cent issue of the Royal
LePage Survey of Canadian
House Prices, over 25 per
cent of the categories listed
in the survey in the Van-
couver area report no change
in house prices over the past
three months. A few areas
even reported modest
declines.

Although other centres in
the province are somewhat
more active than the Van-
couver area, it is thought
that the market throughout
B.C. is taking the long-ex-
pected breather,

Jerry Jackman, vice-
president and divisional
manager for Royal LePage
Residential Real Estate Ser-
vices in British Columbia.
comments: ‘“‘There was a
flood of resale homes that
came on the market during
the spring and this over-
supply, higher interest rates
and buyers’ resistance to
higher prices have combined

suyers

From page 56
a variety of reasons,
Romanese adds. ‘In’ many
parts of the country,

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to stabilize the market.

“There is still a strong in-
terest from off-shore buyers,
but this only represents a
small portion of the total
market,’’ he adds.

“The current market is a
healthy situation. Buyers
now have more homes to
choose from and _ less
pressure to buy quickly. It is
unlikely prices will decline
significuntly, and with inter-
est rates forecast to decline in
the coming months, buying
activity should increase.
However, the boom appears
to be over for now.""

Jackinan’s comments
coincided with the release of
the July issue of the Survey
of Canadian House Prices.
The quarterly, cross-Canada
study tracks the estimated
selling price of seven
categories of housing in over
200 communities from coast
to coast.

Despite the current soft-
ening, prices are still
significantly higher than thev
were a year ago. However,
typical of a market in transi-
tion, the changes in prices
vary widely.

In North Vancouver, for

example, prices for the seven
categories of housing
reported in the area have in-
creased between 13.9 and
25.6 per cent. In Burnaby,
on the other hand, price in-
creases over the past year
range from 45.5 to 75.9 per
cent.

Price increases in other
parts of the province have
been less extreme in the past
{2 months. In Victoria, price
increases range from the
10.9 per cent rise for a
detached bungalow (to
$127,500) to a 31.4 per cent
jump for luxury con-
dominium apartments (to
$230,000).

In Penticton and
Kamloops, the market has
been relatively stable, with
prices up in the five to 10 per
cent range over the past 12
months.

Resale housing values
quoted in the Royal LePage
Survey of Canadian House
Prices represent the
estimated current market
value of typical homes and
are compared to figures
reported three months ago
and a year ago.

‘wait and see’

especially where the local
economy isn’t strong, inter-
est rates are considered too
high, particularly by poten-

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