The Greater Vancouver housing market remained in balanced market conditions in January, although higher levels of buyer demand were seen in some of the region’s largest communities, namely Richmond and Vancouver West.

“There was a healthy balance between the number of home buyers and sellers in our market in January, but there’s always variation in activity from region to region,” said Jake Moldowan, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). "We’re seeing strong sellers’ market conditions in areas like Richmond and the west side of Vancouver.”

Here are the stats for January 2011 according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV)

RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY SALES – DOWN 5% from last year

1,819 homes were sold in January 2011. This is represents a 4% decline from December 2010 and a 5% decline from the same month last year. Looking at this from the big picture, it is slightly higher than the 10 year average of 1,790.

HOUSING PRICE INDEX – UP 3% from last year

The MLSLink® Housing Price Index (HPI) benchmark price has come up about 3% on average across the Greater Vancouver region compared to January 2010. However this past year we have seen a lot of variation across different markets. Richmond has been a hotbed of activity and as a result has shown the greatest price appreciation, with prices rising 23% over last January, followed by Vancouver West where the average rose by 12%.

• The benchmark price for detached properties increased 3% from January 2010 to $810,045.
• The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 1% from January 2010 to $390,935.
• The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 3% from January 2010 $495,140.

NEW LISTINGS – DOWN 7% from last year

4,801 properties were newly listed in January 2011. This represents a 7% decline from January 2010 and a 182% increase compared to the 1,699 new listings we saw in December (2010).

At 10,438, the total number of residential property listings on the MLS increased 6% in January compared to last month and increased 2% from this time last year.

SALES OF DETACHED PROPERTIES – UP 13% from last year

793 detached homes sold in January 2011. This is an increase of 13% from last year and a 171% from January 2009.

SALES OF APARTMENT PROPERTIES – DOWN 21% from last year

713 apartment properties sold in January 2011. This is a decline of 21% from January 2010, and a 98% increase compared to January 2009.

SALES OF ATTACHED PROPERTIES – DOWN 4% from last year

There were a total of 313 attached property sales in January 2011. This marks a 4% decrease from January 2010, and a 187% increase from January 2009.

Download the complete REBGV January 2011 Stats Package >>