Economic uncertainty drove home sales and prices down again in B.C.’s Lower Mainland in April and pushed the market deeper into buyers’ territory. Based on local real estate board data, home sales in the region spanning Metro Vancouver and Abbotsford-Mission (and the Sea-to-Sky), topped 3,100 units during the month, marking a 26-per-cent, year-over-year decline, and compared to a 17.6-per-cent drop in March. This was the fewest April sales since 2020 at the depths of the pandemic.

From our calculations, this was the fifth consecutive decline in seasonally adjusted sales (7.9 per cent) and lower than the 2022 trough when soaring interest rates cooled demand. Given lower interest rates and modest improvements in affordability, as well as federal measures to increase access to mortgage financing in higher-priced markets, declining sales reflects the tariff-related uncertainty. While the Lower Mainland is less sensitive to U.S. tariffs than other regions of the........

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