If you were looking for a new home last year, there wasn’t much to shop for.
Numbers released this week by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), an organization that represents 15,000 realtors from Whistler to Maple Ridge, show 7.5 per cent fewer properties on the market in Metro Vancouver compared with 2022.
Still, with the dip in listings and the high cost of borrowing for purchasers, sellers continued to push up prices as buyers competed for the few homes available.
The benchmark home price in Metro was $1.1 million, a five per cent uptick over 2022.
“The fact that we ended the year with five-per-cent-plus gains in home prices across all market segments demonstrates that Metro Vancouver remains an attractive and desirable designation,” said REBGV spokesperson Andrew Lis in a news release issued today, Jan. 3.
“And elevated borrowing costs alone aren’t enough to dissuade buyers determined to get into this market.”
The REBGV data comes a day after BC Assessment released its property valuations made on July 1, 2023, which also indicate a relatively flat real estate market last year.
Assessments, which determine property values, classifications and exemptions through location, size, land surface, shape, use, age and condition, among other things, play a part in how much the municipality charges in property taxes in July.
Here are the benchmark prices for typical Tri-City properties in December 2023:
Single-family home
- Coquitlam = $1.7 million
- Port Coquitlam = $1.3 million
- Port Moody = $2 million
Townhouse
- Coquitlam = $1 million
- Port Coquitlam = $913,000
- Port Moody = $1 million
Apartment
- Coquitlam = $711,800
- Port Coquitlam = $610,000
- Port Moody = $735,000
MLS listings for December 2023
Coquitlam
- Single-family house = 29
- Townhouse = 22
- Apartment = 35
Port Coquitlam
- Single-family house = 17
- Townhouse = Six
- Apartment 15
Port Moody
- Single-family house = Eight
- Townhouse = 10
- Apartment = 13