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Opinion: Even mediocre 68-year-old Burnaby houses sell for 19% over asking

House is just 2,000 square feet but sold for millions

House sales have seen a small slowdown in the past month, according to the latest stats from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, but some properties in Burnaby are still selling for way over the asking price.

Take, for example, a house on Spruce Street near Burnaby Hospital (see photo above). It just sold for a whopping $2,237,000 or 19% over the original asking price. Not bad for a house that is barely over 2,000 square feet and is 68 years old that includes a moldy-looking lawn on the 7,200-square-foot lot.

As for townhouses, a 28-year-old home measuring 2,600 square feet on Mulberry Place (scroll through the photos above for a pic of the living room) just sold for $1,580,000, which is 21% over the original asking price.

The REBGV numbers show that the average price for a single-detached house jumped nearly 20% in the area of Burnaby South, which is the city’s priciest area for buy a house. The average detached house price across the entire city went from $1,574,000 to a whopping $2,062,000 in just one year.

Across the region, the REBGV reports that residential home sales in the totalled 2,285 in January 2022, a 4.4 per cent decrease from the 2,389 sales recorded in January 2021, and a 15 per cent decrease from the 2,688 homes sold in December 2021.

Last month’s sales were 25.3 per cent above the 10-year January sales average. There were 4,170 detached, attached and apartment properties newly listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service in Metro Vancouver in January 2022. This represents a 6.9 per cent decrease compared to the 4,480 homes listed in January 2021 and a 114.4 per cent increase compared to December 2021 when 1,945 homes were listed.

“Our listing inventory on MLS is less than half of what would be optimal to begin the year. As a result, hopeful home buyers have limited choice in the market today. This trend is causing fierce competition for a scarce number of homes for sale, which, in turn, increases prices,” Keith Stewart, REBGV economist said.

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.