Slower growth or even reversal predicted for Greater Vancouver home prices

Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper said house prices inGreater Vancouver grew 30.6 per cent year-over-year in the third
quarter of the year, marking what may have been the real estatemarket's "final hurrah."

Sopersaid he expects that price growth in Vancouver will slow oreven reverse in the months ahead as the effects of recent federaland provincial government rule changes begin to be felt.

He said it can take about six months for prices to catch up witha change in demand, and points to last month's 32-per cent plunge inhome sales in Greater Vancouver.

Soperisn't blamingB.C'snew 15per cent tax on foreign homebuyers for the decline, saying sales were already softening when thetax took effect in August, but he believes the tax may have been thechange that finally tipped the scales.

The real estate agency said the average house price in the regionsoared to $1.19 million in the three-month period that ended on Sept.30, up from $914,705 during the same quarter last year.

The average price of a home in Greater Toronto rose to $693,154over the third quarter, up 13.6 per cent compared to last year, whenthe average home price was $610,308.

In Edmonton, where the decline in oil prices has hurt the realestate market, the average cost of a home was down 3.1 per cent to$374,712 from $386,829 a year ago.

Royal LePage said its national house price composite a figurebased on 53 of the country's largest real estate markets showedthat the average price of a home climbed 12 per cent from a year agoto $545,414 in the third quarter.