Finding a house listed under $200,000 is next to impossible in most B.C. cities, and quite literally doesn’t exist in nine of them, according to a national real estate report.
International real estate portal Point2 compiled active housing listings from across Canada during the first week of May and found about 10 per cent of them landed below the $200,000 mark. In the country’s 50 largest and most expensive cities, that number dropped to below one per cent, with some of the lowest inventory reported in B.C.
Across the 17 B.C. cities included in Point2’s report, an average of 0.16 per cent of their housing inventory was listed below $200,000.
Kelowna boasted the highest number of homes under the benchmark price at 0.96 per cent. From there, it dropped to 0.46 per cent in Surrey (majority manufactured homes), 0.27 per cent in Delta and 0.26 per cent both in Nanaimo and Abbotsford. Langley offered 0.23 per cent of its homes under $200,000, followed by Richmond and Coquitlam each at 0.17 per cent.
READ ALSO: ‘Dramatic imbalance’ between supply and demand at core of B.C.’s housing problem: analyst
There were zero homes listed under the benchmark price in nine B.C. cities, according to Point2, including: Burnaby, Vancouver, North Vancouver, Maple Ridge, Port Coquitlam, Victoria, Saanich, New Westminster and Chilliwack.
Throughout Canada, the largest supply of homes under $200,000 existed in the prairies and Atlantic Canada, Point2 found. In Cape Bretton, an impressive 44 per cent of homes listed at the start of May were priced under $200,000. The percentages were similarly high in Regina at 36.5 per cent, Saint John at 26.7 per cent and Lethbridge at 26.1 per cent.
Home prices across Canada are projected to drop in the coming year as interest rates rise. What impact if any that has on the number of homes under $200,000 is unknown.
READ ALSO: Metro Vancouver experts weigh in as RBC predicts cooling of B.C. housing market
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affordable housingBritish ColumbiaHousingHousing MarketKelownaMetro Vancouver
