Many Metro Vancouverites waiting for housing drop before buying

With Canadian home prices expected to drop in the next year, many people are holding off on making a purchase with the hopes of saving a little cash.

However, experts believe prospective buyers will still face affordability issues for some time to come.

In Vancouver, Alice Fredine and Keanan Ball — who live in the Yaletown neighbourhood — are among the many holding out until things can cool off further.

“We definitely want to own a home again one day, but we’re not really willing to do that in a way that makes us super stressed or house poor or constantly under strain in order to check that box,” said Fredine.

“I think our friends’ sentiments waver between I will never be able to afford a house regardless of an economic downturn or not in Vancouver, and then I think we have a few groups as well who are also looking to wait,” added Ball.

Realtor Kit Sorongon says it can take a couple of months to see that price dip in the Vancouver area. While he notes the city’s sales have gone down, prices won’t really follow until supply increases. That, he adds, isn’t happening quickly enough.

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So when will it happen? He admits that’s “the tricky question.”

“people are holding on too. Sellers, they’re thinking, ‘If I’m going to sell it low I’m not going to list it. So I’m going to wait too.’ So it’s not just the buyers waiting, sellers are also waiting — they’re not going to saturate the market with a lot of listings right now when they know it’s not going to be a good time to sell,” Sorongon explained.

He says he’s seeing an increase in clients choosing to wait to buy, but most of them are investors.

“The real people that are actually buying to live in a house, the only reason they have a hold back is because they’re not qualified or their pre-approval is not matching what they want to purchase at this time,” the realtor added.

Fredine and Ball say while they’ve got savings, they’re willing to keep waiting it out in their Yaletown rental if it means holding on to their lifestyle.

“We’d much rather be in a rental that works well for us for a longer period or forever than we would to sacrifice things we love to do, like see our friends and go out to restaurants on occasion. We don’t want to give any of that up just to say we own a house,” explained Fredine.