Price declines in the detached residential segment are drawing renewed consumer interest
Some regions in Canada are seeing buyers of detached properties lured back to the market amid a substantial decline in prices, according to RE/MAX Canada.
During the second quarter, detached home sales increased in 40% of the Greater Toronto Area, and approximately 31% of Greater Vancouver.
“While detached housing values show substantial year-over-year gains in the first half of 2022, successive increases to the Bank of Canada’s (BOC) overnight rate put a damper on price appreciation in the second quarter of the year in regions across the Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto housing market,” RE/MAX said.
In particular, the central and west end of the GTA’s 416 section held up “relatively well” in terms of average prices, while Durham, Peel, York, Halton, and Dufferin saw prices retreat after substantial gains in the past few years.
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In Vancouver, initial estimates of Q2 median prices showed that prices in the Squamish area and the Sunshine Coast were comparable to Q1 levels, while West Vancouver and Vancouver West/Howe Sound had “moderate” increases.
“Buyer sentiment changed virtually overnight as growing geopolitical concerns and spiralling inflation destabilized global markets, leaving the Bank of Canada little option but to raise interest rates,” said Christopher Alexander, president of RE/MAX Canada. “Those fast and furious incremental increases placed downward pressure on housing sales and prices, improving affordability on one hand, but eroding it on the other.”
