Falling detached-home prices in some Metro Vancouver areas are not enough to cancel out increases in others, with the region’s aggregate home sale price rising 2.1% year over year in 2018’s fourth quarter, according to Royal LePage.

The national real estate brokerage’s quarterly House Price Survey, released January 11, found that home prices were holding firm in most Metro Vancouver municipalities, although the trend varied by property type.

Across the region as a whole, only bungalows saw a slight year-over-year price decline of 1.4% to a median sale price of $1,402,002. Two-storey houses increased 2.9% year over year to a median of $1,599,785, while condo sale prices across the Metro region rose by 4.6% to $680,991.

“While we’ve seen a significant reduction in the number of sales across all housing types, condominiums continue to outperform all other housing types in Greater Vancouver,” said Randy Ryalls, general manager of Royal LePage Sterling Realty.

Royal LePage’s survey of homes sold in the fourth quarter found that Vancouver, North Vancouver and Burnaby were the only areas to see an overall price slip compared with the same quarter in 2017.

Vancouver’s aggregate (all home types combined) sale price in Q4 fell 0.6% year-over-year to a still-staggering $1,418,251. The city’s median condo sale price saw a slight rise of 1.4% year over year to $792,321, while two-storey home and bungalow prices fell 0.3% and 3.8% to $2,218,632 and $1,466,006, respectively.

North Vancouver’s aggregate home price fell by a similar amount, 0.7% year over year, to $1,435,007, with condo sale prices up 3.4% to $679,526.

Aggregate home prices in Burnaby fell the most in the fourth quarter, by 1.1% year-over-year, to $1,093,001.

West Vancouver and Richmond both defied expectations in 2018’s fourth quarter. West Vancouver’s all-home-types sale price rose 0.2% to a whopping $3,034,685, with the median price of a two-storey home increasing 0.3% to $3,453,541, and condo prices up 3.7%, to $1,240,252.

Richmond aggregate home sale price in Q4 rose a surprising 2.8% on an annual basis to $1,165,134, which was the steepest rise in the region. This is largely due to median condo sale prices rising 8.1% year-over-year to $595,070.

In Coquitlam, aggregate home prices rose 0.4% year-over-year to $1,138,387. Prices in Surrey’s aggregate home sale prices rose 2.3% year-over-year to $936,357, while Langley’s aggregate home price increased a solid 2.4% year-over-year to $1,015,021.

Ryalls added, “While the condo market is showing balance, in contrast, sales activity within the detached housing market has slowed down considerably and is firmly in a buyer’s market. The mortgage qualifying regulations have severely attenuated the purchasing power of interested buyers including the all-important ‘move-up’ buyer eager to purchase a townhome or detached home.”

The analysis of aggregate and median sale prices offers different results than average sale prices, which can be more heavily skewed by extremes at each end of the market.

Home Prices Holding Firm in Most Metro Vancouver Areas & for Condos by Joannah Connolly | Glacier Media Real Estate | Vancouver Courier