Despite press releases from the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver real estate boards saying that April provided a healthy housing market for both buyers and sellers, some people are having trouble selling their properties.
"It's absolutely a buyer's market," said Verina Jagassar, a mother of two with mortgages on two separate properties.
She bought a townhouse in Morgan Heights in South Surrey last December, because with a new baby her family needed a larger home. Her prior residence, a White Rock condo, remains unsold on the market after six months.
She's tried everything, Jagassar told ctvbc.ca. She's changed real estate agents, lowered the selling price, showed the property at different times during the day, and has experimented with showing it furnished as well as vacant. Nothing has worked.
In addition to rising mortgage rates, restrictions on condo owners make her White Rock apartment difficult to sell. If someone agrees on the price and the mortgage rate, rules against children and pets turn them away, she said.
Three years ago when Jagassar bought the White Rock condo there were only a few properties available in the city. Now, she said there are more than 120.
"Buyers can be so picky. It was the complete opposite when we bought that place."
Separate statements released today by the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver real estate boards conversely offer an optimistic account of the housing market.
Residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 3,512, the fifth highest-selling April on record. Sales increased by 38.7 per cent in the Fraser Valley over the 1,293 sales made last April when the market was starting to recover.
Both regions also saw more property listings than last April.
