Local real estate sales last month were the lowest since January 2009 right after the global financial crisis devastated the economy in late 2008.
There were just 98 sales of all types of homes in the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board (CADREB) area in January 2019.
That’s 28.5 per cent lower number of sales than the average number of 137 sales for January over the last 12 years, and just over half the 184 sales in January 2018.
Of the 98 sales last month, 53 were single family homes, 28 townhouses, 11 apartments, four mobile homes and two houses with acreages. Not since January 2009 when just 71 homes were sold were so there so few real estate in the CADREB area, which includes Chilliwack, Cultus Lake, Agassiz to Hope.
Yet despite such a low number of sales, which itself follows on nearly 12 months of slowing sales, prices are not dropping.
The average price of a home sold last month was $532,653. Of that, the single family home average was $604,633, the townhouse average was $427,243, and the apartment average was $271,273.
That’s up from an average sale price of $477,717 of the 184 homes sold in January 2018, and up from $431,868 in January 2017, $312,359 in 2016, and $299,254 in 2015.
The slow January wasn’t just felt in the local market as the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver sales level was down 39.3 per cent year over year.
• READ MORE: Vancouver home sales fall nearly 40% in January as prices pull back
And the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board saw a 35 per cent decrease in sales in January year-over-year.
A slow start to 2019 follows on a 2018 that saw a 25 per cent drop year-over-year due mostly to new tighter federal mortgage restrictions.
According to the B.C. Real Estate Association, about 78,000 home sales were recorded last year, compared to roughly 103,700 the year before.
• READ MORE: B.C. home sales drop 25% in 2018
Listings in CADREB continue to swell with the drop in sales. At the end of last month there were 623 houses on the market, 209 townhouses, 166 apartments, 54 mobile homes and 75 houses with acreage.
At 1,132 listings, that’s up from just 663 a year ago.
• RELATED: Affordable housing in Chilliwack boosted by National Housing Strategy funds
@PeeJayAitch
paul.henderson@theprogress.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.