BURST
House prices have fallen more in Metro Vancouver than in the rest of the country, but that has not necessarily translated into increased sales.
The average house prices in Greater Vancouver fell to $1.2 million in April from $1.3 million in April 2024, a 6.6 per cent decline. By comparison, Greater Toronto had a 4.2 per cent decline in prices in the same period, according to Zoocasa, a real estate listing site and company, which analyzed monthly benchmark prices released by the Canadian Real Estate Association. Nationally, there was an average 3.5 per cent drop.
The most significant price drops in Metro Vancouver were in eastern Burnaby, where the benchmark price fell seven per cent from May 2024 to May 2025 to $1.09 million. West Vancouver saw a six per cent drop to $2.49 million, and Richmond saw a 5.2 per cent decline to $1.13 million.
Meanwhile, the number of sales, year-over-year, is still falling here and in some other markets, but nationally, there were early signs that the number of sales may be increasing.
In May, residential sales in Metro Vancouver totalled only 2,228, a sharp 18.5 per cent drop year-over-year and more than 30 per cent below the 10-year average.
Across the country, home sales fell a more moderate 4.3 per cent, year-over-year, in May, according to the real estate association. But they were up 3.6 per cent from April to May, the first month-over-month increase at the national level in more than six months, driven largely by the Toronto and Calgary markets.
The senior economist at the Canadian Real Estate Association, which represents hundreds of thousands of real estate agents, boards and associations, was careful to say the national trend of sales and prices is only based on one month of data.
Real estate boards use what is known as the MLS Home Price Index, which is a benchmark price that tracks so-called typical homes in different categories. Homes are chosen yearly for being “in the middle of the pack” when it comes to quantitative attributes, such as above-ground square footage or number of rooms, and having qualitative features, such as a fireplace or access to a garage.
Boards prefer this index since taking an average of sale prices in an area in a given month to calculate how much they have increased or decreased can be skewed if there is a large sale or an unusual one.
However, using the average of sale prices is a closer indicator of what is happening in real time in a market.
Real estate agents in Metro Vancouver note there are additional factors when thinking about home prices and the overall market.
Surrey-based real estate agent Mayur Arora said that real estate board benchmark and average prices don’t include sales of new units, mostly condos and townhomes. Some developers have been discounting prices of these to move them, and including these would give a truer snapshot of overall market prices.
Everyone is looking for signs of what will motivate buyers who have been sitting on the sidelines, said Arora.
“Spring has been disappointing at best. It feels like being in a swimming pool and you can’t touch the bottom, but your toe can feel that this is it soon,” he said, explaining that buyers want to know that prices have stabilized before buying, which may be why sales are down or flat even though prices have fallen.
Vancouver real estate agent Kevin Banno recently put a North Vancouver home on Delbrook Avenue under contract for about $300,000 over its asking price of $1.999 million. He thought the large lot with views, but a rundown, vacant home on a street with much more expensive homes worth between $4 million to $6 million might draw a builder or developer.
Banno received eight offers all over the asking price, an indication of how the market is eager to buy certain properties and how much money there is sitting on the sidelines for these, said Arora.
This isn’t the case for other listings where there is a lot of selection of the same kind of product, said Banno.
“There’s no urgency. If it’s a duplex on a single-family lot on the east side or the west side, it’s just crickets. You get the classic line, ‘I loved it and I have 12 more to see.'”