The number of home sales in B.C. continued to fall last month, dropping by more than a third compared to 2009, but housing prices have yet to follow suit.
A total of 5,507 residential units were sold in October, down 36 per cent from the same month last year, according to the latest statistics from the B.C. Real Estate Association.
"All of 2009 saw a tremendous rebound in the housing market," the BCREA's chief economist Cameron Muir told ctvbc.ca.
"We're comparing what was trending on record sales levels to today's modest level of consumer demand."
Heavily populated areas like Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Victoria saw some of the biggest drops in sales, with decreases of more than 30 per cent in total value of homes sold.
The latest numbers follow months of declines in sales compared to last year, and those in the real estate industry have spun the data as good news for buyers.
"The housing market remains tilted in favour of homebuyers," Muir said.
But average home prices haven't followed the same downward trend, rising by six per cent over October 2009 to $521,859 province-wide.
Despite a 30-per-cent drop in the value of home sales in Greater Vancouver in October, the average price of homes sold in the region rose by 10.7 per cent over last year to $707,207.
That follows an 11.3-per-cent increase in September's prices compared to 2009, a 12-per-cent rise in August and an upsurge of 12.6 per cent in July.
"That's most likely due to the distribution of house sales," Muir said, explaining that the numbers could be skewed by fewer people making more expensive purchases.
But he added that the BCREA is predicting that housing prices across the province will decline by a modest one per cent next year.
"Home prices are expected to be quite flat," Muir said.
Last month, The Economist magazine published its annual "fair value" survey of world housing prices, showing Canadian homes cost on average 23.9 per cent more than they are worth.
