A new report by Metro Vancouver outlines how the housing market has changed in Delta and the region in recent years.
The report to the Metro board, Housing Data Book 2023, outlines various housing data compiled using Census and other information, including monthly MLS sales numbers published by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) and the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVRB).
According to the report, 2022 regional home sales dropped by almost 40 per cent since 2021 after a steady increase between 2019 and 2021.
About half (49 per cent) of 2022 home sales in the region were condos, but sales varied significantly across the region.
Vancouver, which saw the greatest number of sales in 2022, also had the greatest number of condo sales (66 per cent of their total sales). Surrey had the greatest number of single- detached and row house/townhouse sales (34 per cent and 32 per cent of their total sales, respectively).
The report notes that residential property sales of all unit types in Ladner and Tsawassen in 2020 totalled 1,050 units. That number jumped to 1,391 units in 2021 as the market continued to be hot, but then sales had fallen to 767 units by 2022.
The five-year increase between 2017 to 2022 was 71 per cent.
Residential sales of all types in North Delta dropped from 1,073 units in 2021 to 521 unit in 2022. Between 2017 to 2022, sales decreased 37 per cent.
As far as the benchmark price for single-detached houses in Ladner and Tsawwasen, back in 2013, it was $611,400. By 2021, the benchmark price increased to $1,285,200, and then to $1,482,200 in 2022.
Between 2017 and 2022, the benchmark price had increased by 52 per cent.
In North Delta, the benchmark price for a single-detached house in 2021 was $1,198,400, and that jumped to $1,519, 600 in 2022.
From 2017 to 2022, the benchmark price had increased 73 per cent.
According to REBGV's year-end report for 2023, the benchmark price of a single-detached house in Ladner last month was $1,387,000, while the benchmark price for a house in Tsawwassen was $1.567,500.
According to the FVRB, the benchmark price for a single-detached house in North Delta in December 2023 was $1,347,000.
Metro's Housing Data 2023 report also notes that across the region, benchmark home sale prices have doubled and tripled in the past 15 years, while wages and inflation have increased much more slowly. Home sales also increased quickly in the past few years, leading to increasing sale prices.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of sales increased drastically despite high home prices, especially of single-detached homes. In 2022, though, the number of home sales dropped by almost 40 per cent compared to levels in 2021.
Among the other findings in the Metro report, 10 per cent of the owner-occupied dwellings in Metro Vancouver in 2021 were built between 2016 and 2021, while another nine per cent of owner-occupied dwellings were built between 2011 and 2015.
More than half (55 per cent) of owner-occupied dwellings in the region were built in the past 30 years (between 1991 and 2021), while the age composition of owner-occupied housing varies across the region.
The areas with the greatest proportion of newly built owner-occupied housing stock (built between 2016 and 2021) were Tsawwassen First Nation, Electoral Area A, Langley Township, Burnaby, Coquitlam, and Surrey.
In 2021, 38 per cent of owner households in Metro Vancouver lived in single-detached housing, but that proportion also varied substantially across the region.
Owner-occupied apartments (low-rise and high-rise condominiums) accounted for 31 per cent of owner-occupied units in the region
Between 2016 and 2021, there was a decrease of 3,600 owner-occupied single-detached units in the region. During the same time, the number of owner-occupied high-rise apartments increased by 14,975 units, low rises increased by 9,435 units and row houses increased by 8,220 units.
According to the City of Delta's Housing Needs Assessment three years ago, which guided the formulation of the city's Housing Action, about 80 per cent of Delta’s housing stock is still owned, with close to that percentage of the housing stock comprised of singe-detached houses.
