Hi there, my name is Teresa Comeau and I'm with Re/Max Select Realty, welcome to Market Update April 2013. Now over the last last few months in the real estate market in Vancouver, there's been a bit of a stand off between buyers and sellers. There's been less demand from buyers. The buyers that are out there are not willing to pay the prices that the sellers were willing to sell at. So the sellers that didn't have to sell, for whatever reason, took their homes off the market. So this created less inventory in the market. Now, the buyers that were waiting for the prices to plummet are tired waiting cause prices haven't adjusted really that much. So, they come back from the marketplace in the last month.
So, we have been seeing some multiple offers on some properties that are well priced and in demand with the buyers out there. Now last month we had about 2,347 sales in greater Vancouver and that's about 30 percent higher than last month. And we also had new listings of 4,839 new listings in Vancouver, and that is down from our normal spring averages.
And so, this lower supply and lower demand is keeping prices in check. Overall prices have dropped about three to five percent over last year. But they've actually increased one percent over last month. So, that's going to give you a run down roughly what's going on in the general marketplace. Now the sales to active listing ratio is 15 percent right now and that's up 3 percent from last month and this is clearly a balanced market.
It can be really confusing out there cause the media reports are very conflicting and my personal opinion is that the market is good and stable and if you price your property to sell, it'll sell. So if you want some advice to your specific home and neighborhood and what works best for you, please give me a call. I'd be happy to share what I do know.
The other things that's happened in the last month is the departure of HST and the return of the PST and the GST. So what that means is this only affects brand new homes and are now at 5% GST with a 2% transition tax so right now it's about 7% for new homes. This does not affect resale homes, just new homes, and there is also now GST on commissions where it was HST before.
So other than that's about all for my market update, so thank you for joining me and like I said if you would like any specific information on your home or your situation, I'd be happy to sit down and discuss that with you. Again my name is Teresa Comeau. Thank you for watching.