Lower Mainland real estate prices recorded modest to strong gains in 2014, with detached houses generally rising faster than townhouses or condos.
Year-end statistics released by the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley real estate boards show benchmark detached houses on average gained 6.7 per cent over the past year.
Those increases ranged from more than 10 per cent in Vancouver, Tsawwassen and Burnaby to less than five per cent in West Vancouver, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Langley, Abbotsford, Mission and parts of Surrey.
The increases pushed the benchmark price of houses above $1 million for the first time in Burnaby and for the Greater Vancouver area as a whole.
Benchmark house prices across the Fraser Valley area, which includes Surrey, White Rock and North Delta, ended the year at $573,100.
Benchmark prices show the shifts of a typical property and exclude the most expensive ones that can skew average prices much higher.
Price increases were more muted for townhouses and condos across the region.
Townhouses or attached homes averaged a 2.6 per cent gain across the Lower Mainland, with the strongest gains of more than seven per cent recorded in Maple Ridge, North Delta, Squamish and Vancouver’s west side.
Benchmark townhouse prices were $293,500 in the Fraser Valley and $476,000 in Greater Vancouver.
Condo prices dropped in value in several areas in 2014, with the Fraser Valley benchmark down 0.8 per cent and the biggest drops of nearly 10 per cent in Maple Ridge and North Surrey. Greater Vancouver condos gained 3.5 per cent on average.
Benchmark condo prices ended the year at $191,100 for the Fraser Valley and $380,700 for Greater Vancouver.
The December 2014 statistics provided by realtor associations are different from the just-released home assessments, which are conducted by BC Assessment and are intended to provide a valuation snapshot as of each July 1.
