Metro Vancouver home sales down 39.4 per cent in April to near 40-year low

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says home sales dropped by 39.4 per cent in April from a year earlier to hit an almost four-decade low.

The board says there were a total of 1,109 home sales in the month, down from the 1,829 sales a year earlier as activity was hit by a full month of physical distance restrictions related to COVID-19.

It says the sales total was 62.7 per cent below the 10-year average for April and the lowest total for the month since 1982. New home listings were down by 59.7 per cent to 2,313 in April compared with a year earlier, while the total number of active listings was down 34.6 per cent compared with April 2019.

The board says the sales-to-active listings ratio was 11.8 per cent, just nudging into the level analysts consider as signalling potential for downward pressure on prices.

Prices however held for April with the composite benchmark index price up 2.5 per cent from a year earlier, and up 0.2 per cent from March, at $1.04 million.