Christie's Real Estate Team

The cool, damp summer may have been disappointing for campers, but all those rainy weekends must have been good for house-hunting -- British Columbia home sales were 14 per cent higher in the June-through-August period than they were in summer of 2006, the B.C. Real Estate Association reports.

And August sales were 25.9 per cent higher than the same month last year, with residential unit sales hitting 9,833.

"Despite eroding affordability, home sales are on a near-record pace," BCREA chief economist Cameron Muir said in a news release issued Tuesday.

B.C.'s already prohibitive housing affordability levels deteriorated even further during the second quarter of 2007, the Royal Bank said earlier this month.

The RBC affordability index, which measures the proportion of pre-tax household income needed to service the costs of owning a home, put the cost of owning a detached bungalow at 65 per cent, while in Vancouver that number was 71 per cent.

But Muir noted that while the average home price across the province is climbing at a year-over-year rate of 12 per cent, that's down from the high of 21 per cent reached in June, 2006.

And prices are expected to cool even further, Muir said, adding: "Less upward pressure on home prices is expected over the next 24 months."

Aging baby boomers, either retired or planning for retirement, continued to buoy the B.C. housing market.

"Preferred retirement locations, such as Vancouver Island, the Okanagan and Kootenays, have experienced the largest increases in home sales this year," Muir said.

The South Okanagan Real Estate Board reported in August a 26.5-per-cent increase in unit sales over August 2006, while Vancouver Island and Victoria boards' August-to-August numbers were 19.5 per cent and 21.6 per cent respectively.

The increase in the Kootenay board's region was a more modest 10 per cent, while in Greater Vancouver unit sales were up 13 per cent from August of last year.

But the Kootenay board reported the biggest percentage increase in average sale price, up 30.6 per cent over August 2006. The average price of a residential unit in the Kootenay board hit $298,420, up from $228,434 a year ago.

The province-wide average price of a residential unit hit $439,931, up 11.8 per cent from August 2006.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007