Tariff uncertainty continued to weigh on Vancouver’s housing market in March, deepening the slowdown in activity. Escalating U.S. trade actions have fuelled fears of a recession, job losses and equity market volatility, pushing many potential buyers to the sidelines.

The latest data from the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley real estate boards (showed a deepening of the sales pullback in March. MLS sales fell 17.6 per cent year over year—slightly worse than February. Seasonally adjusted sales fell 10 per cent by our calculation, down for a fourth straight month. Since November, the monthly pace of sales is down 35 per cent and back to the lows of 2022 that followed interest rate shock. The upward momentum we saw before the U.S. presidential election is gone. While there have certainly been some factors working against demand—including weaker population growth outlook and a tempered........

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