Vancouver`s home buyers taking their time in August
METRO VANCOUVER - Buyers are in control of Lower Mainland housing markets, but they`re in no hurry to make decisions, August statistics released Thursday by the region`s real estate boards show.
August saw another month where sales cleared through the realtor-controlled Multiple Listing Service were dramatically down from the blistering pace of 2009 and benchmark average prices that were lower than the peak levels experienced this spring.
"I think [the market] is settling down more," Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban economics and real estate in the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C., said in an interview.
"These aren`t bust numbers and housing prices are stagnant," Somerville added. "The way we normally expect prices to get back into equilibrium when they`ve been overpriced is through a period of lower growth, not through price corrections."
The benchmark price, an average for typical homes sold, was down almost three per cent in most of Metro Vancouver, hitting $576,597 in August compared with a peak of $593,419 in April, according to Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver figures.
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