Fewer first-time home buyers this year: notaries

Notaries are the professionals in some of the closest touch with actual real estate information.

They are called upon when a home is purchased, so their work is apart from speculation and projections.

What the notaries of B.C. collectively saw in 2018 was "an overall decrease in first-time home buyers in most regions of the province" according to spokesperson Brenda Jones of the B.C. Notaries Association.

Their numbers also revealed that first-time home buyers were more likely than in recent years to get financial help from parents to afford down payments.

Overall, said Jones, there was a 59 per cent decrease in first-time home buyers. For those who did take the step to buy a first home, 83 per cent got parental help with the money.

When asked about why these signs of difficulty had emerged, 76 per cent of notaries across the province reported that the price of a house in their market was an issue.

The main three factors impacting their local markets, notaries collectively reported, were increased mortgage restrictions, rising interest rates, and lack of supply.

"You'll see that responses in northern B.C. were far different than in the rest of the province," Jones said.

"More notaries in northern B.C. reported an increase (30 per cent) or no change (40 per cent) in first-time buyer activity in 2018 than in other regions," Jones specified.

"Unlike the rest of the province where home prices are a considerable factor, only 10 per cent of notaries consider it an issue in northern B.C."

Real estate transactions, when looked at in aggregate, often reflect a region's economy.

For northern B.C., said Jones, "notaries cited increasing interest in buying in most communities due to resource sector growth."