Burnaby’s real estate market has cooled somewhat from the heady days of April and May, but things are still pretty heated.
And that’s causing problems for many buyers who only have so much money to spend, but must compete with so many other buyers.
Karl thought he and his wife were in solid because they were able to make an offer that was 10% over the asking price for a North Burnaby condo. They had originally agreed to the selling price, but were told they must go over the asking price to have any shot.
“I felt like an idiot making such a big offer but we were told to do it,” Karl told the NOW. “So we get a response and were told they sneered because our offer was only 10% over asking – they wanted something in the area of 30%, which is ludicrous. I'm pissed off about the whole thing. This doesn't seem sustainable.”
That, apparently, is the reality as multiple offers roll in for too few properties. According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's June report, listing activities and sales have eased since record-setting paces were seen in March and April this year.
Greater Vancouver saw 3,762 sales last month, which is a 54% increase from 2,443 sales in June of 2020, but a decrease of 11.9% decrease from 4,268 listings sold in May of this year. There were 5,849 detached, attached and apartment properties listed for sale on MLS during June of 2021 which marks a 17.9% decline compared to May when there were 7,125 homes listed.
In Burnaby, sales only dropped slightly from May and the numbers were as follows:
JUNE 2021 - NUMBER OF SALES
- Detached - 102
- Attached - 99
- Apartment - 273
MEDIAN SELLING PRICE
- Detached - $1,874,000
- Attached - $885,000
- Apartment - $633,000
MAY 2021 - NUMBER OF SALES
- Detached - 115
- Attached - 110
- Apartment - 296
May to June of 2021, listings fell by 27.6% for detached homes, 21.2% for attached and 10.3% for apartments.
The reason why bidding so far over asking is difficult is because British Columbia homebuyers had to put down an average of nearly $160,000 to purchase a home during the first quarter of 2021, by far the highest level in the country.
B.C. buyers anted an average down payment of 22.45 per cent of the purchase price, or $159,762, to purchase a home. This is $101,191 more than the average in Quebec, where buyers paid the lowest down payments in Canada, according to a study released June 29 by LowesRates.ca.
The average composite home prices in B.C. and Quebec are $916,741 and $449,698, respectively, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.
In Alberta, where the average home price is $442,808, the typical homebuyer puts down less than $63,000, the study found.
In Ontario, the average homebuyer this year is putting down $140,215, or 20.3 per cent of the purchase price, the report stated. The average composite home price on Ontario in the first quarter was $866,307.
According to the most recent forecast from CMHC, the number of homes sold this year could reach 602,300, up from around 550,000 in 2020.
"This could drive the average home price in Canada up about 14 per cent this year," according to LowestRates.ca
- With files from Western Investor and Jess Balzer, Burnaby NOW
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
