Just about every statistic indicates that July 2016 was the slowest month in Vancouver real estate that we’ve seen in quite some time…

Just about every statistic indicates that July 2016 was the slowest month we’ve seen in the Vancouver real estate market in quite some time. There were signs that certain elements of the market were cooling prior (detached houses in particular), but other housing types are now also showing signs of fatigue. To put it in perspective, most measures (other than price) fall well within the average for the last decade. It’s also normal for July and August to be slower months in the year as Buyers, Sellers and Realtors take a break from the market. The elephant in the room is the introduction of the Foreign Investor Tax. The tail end of the month was likely significantly impacted by the announcement of the new tax. Our observation is that this announcement led people to take a step back in the last part of the month, which resulted in it being slower than it otherwise would have been. We believe that there will continue to be some short-term softness in the market as this new factor is digested, but once that has happened, sales volume and price appreciation will likely return albeit at a more sustainable pace.