Vancouver home sales surge in October amid lower borrowing costs: board

In a photo taken by drone, Vancouver homes in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver are pictured Monday, October 3, 2022.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Greater Vancouver Realtors says home sales in the region jumped 31.9 per cent in October compared with the same month last year, marking potential early signs of a long-awaited rebound after the Bank of Canada's four consecutive cuts to its key interest rate.

The real estate board says there were 2,632 sales of existing residential homes last month, which is just 5.5 per cent below the 10-year average after months of tracking approximately twenty per cent below those trends.

It says there were 5,452 newly listed properties, up 16.9 per cent from last year and 20 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average.

The total number of listings stood at 14,477. That's 26.2 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average.

The board's director of economics and data analytics, Andrew Lis, says it was "only a matter of time until signs of renewed strength in demand showed up," as the October sales figures suggest buyers who have been waiting on the sidelines may finally be responding to lower borrowing costs.

The composite benchmark price sat at $1,172,200, down 1.9 per cent from October 2023 and 0.6 per cent from September.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.