Home buyers have raised prices for single-family detached houses to record highs in Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley.
With the home price index hitting $984,300 last month for detached properties sold in Greater Vancouver, this is up 6.6 per cent from August 2013. In the Fraser Valley, which includes the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, the detached price index climbed 3.4 per cent to $569,800 over the past year.
While the record-high prices for detached houses will likely prompt more consumers, especially first-time home buyers, to shop for townhouses and condos, baby boomers are selling their large detached homes and moving into condos, helping their children with down payments and fueling the rally in housing prices in Greater Vancouver.
A variety of factors have led to property prices reaching new highs, including low interest rates, a stable economy and an influx of residents from other provinces and countries, real estate experts say.
