To accompany the REBGV Report for 2014, REBGV President Ray Harris returns this month with a look at the housing market in 2014 in a detailed year-end review video.

Statistically speaking, it was a typical year for home buyer and seller activity in Metro Vancouver. Home sales and listings for the year both ranked 5th highest in the region over the last decade. There were 33,116 homes sold in our MLS listings for 2014. That’s up 16% from 2013 and 32% from 2012! This total, however, remains below the record breaking years seen in the middle part of the last decade.

On the supply side, there were 54,066 homes listed for sale on the MLS in 2014. That’s 2.4% above 2013 and 4% below 2012. This total also ranks 5th highest in the last 10 years of activity in the region.

While this largely created a balanced market conditions, we did experience some upper pressure on home prices over the course of the year. The benchmark pricing for all residential properties for Greater Vancouver rose 5.8% over the last 12 months to $638,500. Detached homes continued to be the most sought after property type in our market. The benchmark price for a single detached home rose 8% in the last 12 months, while townhomes and condos rose 4.5% and 3.5% respectively. Some of the largest home price increases in 2014 occurred in the detached home market of Vancouver, Tsawwassen, and North Vancouver.