Prices for Lower Mainland homes continued to climb in April, albeit more slowly than they did last year, according to real estate numbers released Wednesday.
The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board said that apartments, which have seen a 46 per cent jump in cost since April of last year, have increased by just 1.6 per cent since last month.
That’s a slower rate of increase compared to last spring when apartment values averaged three-to-four per cent increases monthly.
Townhouses saw a 1.5 per cent increases in cost compared to last month and a 23 per cent increase compared to last April.
Detached homes continue to see the the slowest growth at 0.8 per cent since March and 13.5 per cent since last year.
Although the number of active listings was up across the Fraser Valley, the board said that sales stayed slow and were down 23.4 per cent compared to this time last year.
Speaking to Black Press Media last month, Michael Trites, managing broker with Royal LePage NorthStar in Surrey, said that the new mortgage rules were slowing down sales.
The new “stress test” means that all borrowers must now qualify for a mortgage based on either the five-year benchmark rate or their lender’s actual rate plus two per cent, whichever is higher. The change will apply to all mortgages, new or renewed, even if the down payment exceeds 20 per cent.
However, once homes are listed they continued to sell quickly.
Apartments and townhouses continued to sell within about two weeks and detached homes sold in under a month.
