Projected dollar volume of residential resales in 2015 through the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is pegged at $38.6 billion, up 41% from a year ago, according to the BC Real Estate Association. Sales of detached houses alone in the region are worth $24.9 billion. In the Fraser Valley, total residential sales will tally $11.4 billion in 2015, 11.4% higher than in 2014.
In comparison, the total GDP of the B.C. forestry industry this year will be $1.8 billion, the oil and gas industry will be worth $6.9 billion and the mining industry will ring at $4 billion, according to forecasts from Central 1 Credit Union. Together these traditional B.C. industries will generate a GDP of $12.7 billion in 2015, or about three months worth of housing resales in the Vancouver region.
Province wide, resales of homes will total $64. 5 billion in 2015, said BCREA economist Brendon Ogmundson,
Bryan Yu, senior economist with Central I cautioned that industrial GDP is the measurement of new production, while resale housing sales “doesn’t really add any value. It is not a direct comparison.”
However, Yu noted that residential construction in B.C. this year will reach a GDP of $21.2 billion, up 8% from a year ago, and worth more than 10% of the entire industrial gross domestic product in the province.
“Overall, housing is a huge economic driver for B.C.,” Yu said.
By: Frank O’Brian
https://www.biv.com/article/2015/12/housing-metro-vancouver-bcs-biggest-industry/