Tsawwassen has broken through the $1 million level.
According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's statistics for December 2015, released earlier this week, the "benchmark" price for a typical detached single-family home in Tsawwassen has reached $1,021,300, an almost three per cent increase from the previous month. More startling is that the benchmark for a Tsawwassen house is up 32.2 per cent from December 2014.
Tsawwassen continued to have the highest oneyear percentage increase among all communities in the real estate association's coverage area, which includes Vancouver and Richmond.
The second highest increase was in Ladner, which saw the benchmark price for a single-family home go up almost four per cent from the previous month to $855,800, representing a 30 per cent increase from a year ago.
While house prices in Ladner in Tsawwassen have yet to reach the mind boggling level now in the City of Vancouver, where the median price last month for detached houses reached $3.2 million on the west side and $1.36 million on the east side, South Delta has experienced the most rapid increase.
As far as townhomes and condos in South Delta, last month the benchmark for a Tsawwassen townhouse reached $525,900, up almost 19 per cent from a year earlier, while Ladner was at $527,500, up 15.2 per cent from the previous year.
The benchmark for a Tsawwassen condo was $343,600, up six per cent from a year ago, while in Ladner it stood at $337,800, up 7.7 per cent.
The region as a whole has been hot as the real estate board reports home sales in 2015 reached the highest annual total in its history. Sales of detached, attached and apartment properties in 2015 reached 42,326, a 27.8 per cent increase over 2014 and a 48.4 per cent jump over 2013.
According to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, which covers North Delta, the benchmark price for a single-family home in North Delta last month was $703,100, a 25.9 per cent increase from a year earlier. The benchmark for a condo was $166,900, only a 2.4 per cent increase, while townhomes stood at $349,500, up 9.6 per cent.
It remains to be seen if the Liberal government's plan to increase the down payment needed on homes over $500,000 from five to 10 per cent will have any impact on the region's red hot housing market. Homes under $500,000 will still only require five per cent down.
It also remains to be seen if the levels of government will consider heeding a petition, which has almost 26,000 signatures, to restrict foreign investment in Greater Vancouver's residential real estate market.
Vancouver city council, meanwhile, is once again floating the idea of a luxury tax and a speculation tax aimed at keeping buyers from driving up prices through quick resales.
Delta council has not weighed in on the issue.
