BRITISH COLUMBIA – The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its 2019 Third Quarter Housing Forecast Update today.
Multiple Listing Service (MLS) residential sales in the province are forecast to decline 5 per cent to about 75,000 units this year, after recording 78,505 residential sales in 2018. MLS residential sales are forecast to increase 11 per cent to 82,700 units in 2020, just below the 10-year average for MLS residential sales of 85,800 units.
“BC markets are showing signs of recovery after nearly a year and a half of policy-induced declines,” said Brendon Ogmundson, BCREA Deputy Chief Economist. “We expect that recovery to continue into next year, with home sales normalizing around long-term averages.”
A recovery in home sales has slowed the accumulation of resale inventory, with active listings still well short of the previous peak in 2012. That leaves market conditions at the provincial level essentially balanced with little upward pressure on prices. We anticipate that the MLS average price will decline 2.4 per cent in 2019 before rising modestly by 3 per cent to $718,000 in 2020.
