Home sales in March plunged below the 10-year average in the Lower Mainland, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

Figures released today (April 3) by the association also show that March sales were the second lowest for the month of March since 2002. More houses are on sale than what’s expected for a typical March.

The Straight asked Tsur Somerville, director of UBC’s Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, whether there’s reason for worry about these figures.

“It is a combination associated with weakening markets,” Somerville said. “But any assessment requires another few months of data.

“More people are looking in the spring and it just may be listings getting a little ahead,” Somerville added in his email response.

REBGV’s news release on the March figures states:

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver reached 2,874 on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in March 2012. This represents a 12.9 per cent increase compared to the 2,545 sales recorded in February 2012, a decline of 29.6 per cent compared to the 4,080 sales in March 2011 and an 8.4 per cent decline compared to the 3,137 home sales in March 2010.

March sales in Greater Vancouver were the second lowest total for the month in the region since 2002 and were 16.8 per cent below the 10-year sales average for the month….

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 5,843 in March 2012. This represents a 5.2 per cent increase compared to February when 5,552 homes were listed and a 14 per cent decline compared to March 2011 when 6,797 homes were listed for sale on the region’s MLS®.

Last month’s new listing total was 4.5 per cent above the 10-year average for listings in Greater Vancouver for March.
At 15,236, the total number of residential property listings on the MLS® increased 8.4 per cent in March compared to last month and increased 16 per cent from this time last year.

In a phone interview, Central 1 Credit Union economist Bryan Yu said that he wasn’t surprised by the March figures.

He recalled that there were a lot of sales prior to the change in mortgage insurance rules in March last year, and this partly explains some of the lagging activity this year.

“The benchmark pricing continues to go up…so it just points to a more balanced market in the Greater Vancouver region,” Yu told the Straight.