BC real estate prices rose 16.1 percent over the past year, according to data from the BC Real Estate Association on Thursday (Feb.11).
The data showed that the median home price last month was $ 845,169, compared to $ 728,269 in January 2020. The region with the largest increase was the Kootenays, where the number of homes rose 28.5 percent to $ 427,544 since January 2020 rose in the last month. Fraser Valley jumped 25.8 percent to $ 944,996, while the notoriously expensive Metro Vancouver real estate jumped 11.2 percent to break the million dollar mark to $ 1,089,096.
On Vancouver Island, prices rose 10.9 percent to $ 528,930, while the north rose 12.6 percent to $ 339,608 and the interior rose 26.7 percent to $ 500,789. The only region that saw a decline was the South Peace River, which fell 22.2 percent to $ 197,874.
While real estate prices rose, the number of active housing offers fell by 21.5 percent compared to the previous year. The 20,254 units were listed in January – the lowest level of active listings in the provinces since 2000.
However, the number of units sold rose 63.3 percent from January 2020 to 7,169, a thousand times higher than the previous record for the month of January. Total sales in US dollars in January 2021 were 6.1 billion US dollars, an increase of 89.6 percent over the previous year.
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