Vancouver home sales rise
Home sales in the Vancouver region's once-boiling housing market surged in February from January and prices edged higher, but activity was sharply lower than a year ago, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said. February sales rose 59.2 % from a month earlier but were down 41.9 % from the record-setting pace a year ago and 7.7 % below the 10-year average, as snowy weather and limited supply hampered activity, the real estate group said. Vancouver's housing market, the most expensive in Canada, has come off the boil since the provincial government imposed a 15 percent foreign buyers tax in August 2016 amid concern that speculation by global investors, mostly from mainland China, was fueling a bubble. Sales and prices have declined unevenly since the tax was imposed, with the volatile monthly numbers reflecting seller reluctance to accept the slowdown and uncertainty about whether the impact of the tax will wear off. “While home sales are not happening at the pace we experienced last year, home seller supply is still struggling to keep up with today’s demand," Dan Morrison, the group's president, said in a statement. "This is why we’ve seen little downward pressure on home prices, particularly in the condominium and townhome markets."
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