Vancouver real estate prices are sky high, but they have been coming down. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) updated its new Residential property price index for Q3 2019. The index shows prices made a big climb from two years ago. However, prices are now falling very quickly, especially in the condo apartment segment.
Vancouver New Home Prices Increased More Than Resales
Vancouver home prices are showing weakness these days, but are still up. Home prices dropped 1.74% in Q3 2019, and are down 5.21% from the same quarter last year. Even though prices dropped, they’re still up 9.10% from Q1 2017, the first quarter in the index. Unlike Toronto, new builds are where most of the price movement came from.
Vancouver Residential Property Price Index
A Vancouver home price index, including both new builds and resale.
Source: Statistics Canada, Better Dwelling.
Vancouver’s new build homes made a big drop in the quarter, wiping out more than a year of movement. New build prices are down 0.96% in Q3 2019, leaving prices down 0.77% from a year before. Prices are still up 10.23% from Q1 2017, so it’s not all that rough. In fact, that’s a pretty big gain, and a much larger increase than resale homes made.
Vancouver’s resale homes are performing a lot worse in the near-term. The price of a resale home is down 2.32% in Q3 2019, down 7.25% from the same quarter last year. Prices are still up 8.37% from the start of the index in 2017 though. Recent declines are larger for new homes, but over a longer run they’re not all that much worse… kind of.
Vancouver’s Detached Houses
Single-family house prices are performing below the general home price index. House prices dropped 1.87% in Q3 2019, bringing prices down 5.95% from a year before. Prices are now up 5.74% from Q1 2017, so about half the pace of growth as the general market.
Vancouver Residential Property Price Index – Houses
Vancouver home price index for houses, including both new builds and resale.
Source: Statistics Canada, Better Dwelling.
Like the broader Vancouver market is seeing, new builds appreciate faster. New builds saw prices fall 0.78% in Q3 2019, bringing total losses to 1.64% from the year before. Prices in this segment have increased 7.04% from Q1 2017. Prices have been trending lower recently, but are still higher than they were two years ago.
Resale house prices made a big drop from last year, but are still up from two years ago. Resale homes dropped 2.28% in Q3 2019, bringing prices down 7.69% from a year before. Prices in this segment are up 5.02% from Q1 2017. Resale house prices haven’t even moved as much as the national index.
Condo Prices Increased Almost 3x Faster Than Houses
Condo apartment prices have been falling recently but are still up substantially. Condo prices fell 1.82% in Q3 2019, bringing prices down 3.49% from a year before. Prices are up 17.90% from Q1 2017. Breaking that down, we see volatile movements in the resale apartments, heavily influences the index.
Vancouver Residential Property Price Index – Apartments
Vancouver home price index for condo apartments, including both new builds and resale.
Source: Statistics Canada, Better Dwelling.
Vancouver’s new build condos are seeing prices fall, but are still up a substantial amount. New condo prices fell 1.40% in Q3 2019, but prices are still up 1.05% from a year before. Prices are up a total of 15.63% from Q1 2017. That’s a fairly big drop for a quarter, but it doesn’t seem like much considering the rise over the past two years.
Resale condos made a bigger drop in the quarter, but the overall gains are larger than new builds. Condo resale prices were down 2.15% in Q3 2019, down 5.87% from a year before. That puts prices 18.87% higher than they were in Q1 2017 – a mind boggling movement. Even the almost 6% decline from last year, left this segment with massive price gains from two years ago.
Vancouver condos outperformed house price growth over the past few years, by a lot. The pace of growth came in at nearly 3x that of houses. However, prices over the past year have declined for condos, almost twice as fast. Who knew condos would be so volatile?
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Where else is one going to launder money?!
All in all, about what gains or losses on the stock market have been. People looking for true affordability are shit outta luck. Which has been the case since 1980.
Oh really? You must have slept through the mid-late 90s. Property wasn’t just affordable, it was downright dirt cheap.
Even if I won a million dollars and bought a mid-town Toronto condo for $900,000, how can I afford to pay the monthly condo fees, hydro, heat and property taxes which are almost as high as renting a 1 bedroom apartment (around $1,400 in total a month), and God forbids if the condo board decides to do major repairs and I don’t have the extra $30,000-$50,000 lying around.