Brendon Ogmundson
BRITISH COLUMBIA – The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its 2020 Third Quarter Housing Forecast Update today.
Multiple Listing Service (MLS) residential sales in the province are forecast to rise 6.5 per cent to 82,380 units this year, after recording 77,351 residential sales in 2019. MLS residential sales are forecast to increase 17.6 per cent to 96,860 units in 2021.
“The outlook for the BC housing market is much brighter following a surprisingly strong recovery,” said Brendon Ogmundson, BCREA Chief Economist. “We expect home sales will sustain this momentum into 2021, aided by record-low mortgage rates and a recovering economy.”
With home sales more than fully recovered and now above pre-COVID-19 levels, combined with a decline in the supply of re-sale listings driven by the pandemic, many markets are now seeing sharply rising average prices despite a weak provincial economy. We are forecasting the provincial MLS average price to finish the year up 7.7 per cent and to increase a further 3.7 per cent in 2021.
