By Canadian Press

Vancouver home sales up 46% in March, but show signs of slowing due to outbreak

Apr 2, 2020 | 8:18 AM

VANCOUVER — The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says home sales started off strong in March but tapered as the COVID-19 outbreak intensified.

It says that despite the slowdown, overall sales for the month were still up 46.1 per cent to 2,524 sales in the month compared to a year earlier, when March sales had hit their lowest level in more than three decades.

The board says sales for March were still 19.9 per cent below the 10-year average for the month as restrictions and concerns around the outbreak put pressure on activity.

Sales averaged 138 per day for the first 10 days of the month, but were down to an average of 93 a day for the last ten days, while the board notes that many sales recorded in the month were already in process before the province declared a state of emergency.

New listings were down 10.4 per cent from the same month last year to 4,436, but up 10.8 per cent from February.

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The composite benchmark price was $1.03 million, up 2.1 per cent in March compared with last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2020.

The Canadian Press