The Lower Mainland housing market cooled in July as further interest rate hikes pushed more buyers to the sideline, affordability further deteriorated and buyer confidence sank.
MLS sales in the region spanning Metro Vancouver, Abbotsford-Mission and the Sea-to-Sky region sank to 3,765 units in July. This marked a steeper-than-normal monthly decline of 22 per cent from June , highlighting a pullback in activity. On a year-over-year basis, sales growth remained in line with June at 32 per cent, but this owed to the base effect of declining sales last year. Compared to the same month average from 2010 to 2019, sales were down 11 per cent.
That said, this is unlikely to trigger a material price decline given the tight supply conditions. New listings fell more than normal for July , albeit the trend is rising. Prospective sellers have retreated from the market as sales slow. Fewer sales have contributed to rising resale inventory but levels remain tight and six per cent lower than last year’s already-low levels. The sales-to-active-listings ratio remained firmly in a sellers’ market.
Like the national picture, B.C.’s labour market was relatively unchanged in July as seasonally adjusted employment nudged down 0.1 per cent . Given this, employment growth in the province continues to slow. Total employment grew 0.8 per cent year over year in July, the smallest increase in over three years. It is above pre-pandemic February 2020 by 4.1 per cent. The labour participation rate declined from June’s 65.2 per cent to 64.8 per cent, while the provincial unemployment rate fell to 5.