Real estate optimism: Does summer 'momentum' in B.C. home sales signal a market getting past Trump's tariff chaos?
'With a stable trajectory for monetary policy, we expect sales in the province will continue to improve as tariff uncertainties fade'
While year-to-date home sales in B.C. are down compared to 2024 and are 16 per cent below the 10-year average, the B.C. Real Estate Association (BCREA) is feeling positive about the coming months in a statement this week.
“Housing markets across B.C. continue to build momentum through the summer, with all regions apart from the Lower Mainland boasting higher sales activity from the previous year,” said BCREA chief economist Brendon Ogmundson in the association's monthly news release.
“With a stable trajectory for monetary policy, we expect sales in the province will continue to improve as tariff uncertainties fade.”
For those living in the Lower Mainland, however, which well over half the population of B.C., the key part of that quote might be "apart from the Lower Mainland."
While sales in July 2025 in the real estate association areas of BC Northern, Okanagan, Kamloops, Kootenay, Powell River, Vancouver Island, and Victoria were in the range of five to 17 per cent higher compared to July 2024, in Chilliwack, Fraser Valley, and Greater Vancouver sales were down 9.4 per cent, five per cent, and 1.6 per cent respectively.
The only outlier in that scenario was the tiny district of South Peace River were sales where down 4.5 per cent.
Home sale prices in the Lower Mainland markets were up one per cent in the Fraser Valley/Chilliwack and down 3.7 per cent in Vancouver, while they were all over the map elsewhere, from down 4.1 per cent in the Okanagan to up a whopping 45.8 per cent in the smallest real estate association area, Powell River, where the average sale price of $792,196 surpassed Vancouver Island ($772,124), Okanagan ($746,230), Kamloops ($628,877), and Chilliwack ($754,980).
The average selling price of homes in the Fraser Valley association area, Abbotsford to White Rock, was $1.02 million. In Greater Vancouver it was $1.24 million.
Year-to-date, B.C. the dollar volume of residential sales was down 9.4 per cent to $40.8 billion, compared with the same period in 2024. Residential unit sales are down 5.7 per cent year-over-year at 42,895 units, while the average residential price is also down 3.9 per cent to $952,323.
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Paul J. Henderson
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