The BCREA Economics team has created the COVID-19 Recovery Dashboard to help REALTORS® monitor BC’s economic recovery. This dashboard focuses on the sectors and activities that have been most significantly impacted by the pandemic and the province’s state of emergency.

To monitor the province’s progress, we benchmark each indicator to February 2020, the month before the pandemic was declared. This dashboard will be updated each month.

1. Housing Markets

In BC in March, sales, starts and new listings declined. Sales rose in the Kootenay and Northern regions, while declining in all other areas of the province. Rental costs in Vancouver and Victoria continue broadly rising and remain elevated relative to most other points since the onset of the pandemic.

2. Retail, Restaurant Reservations and Movement

Retail sales eased somewhat in February but remain close to record highs. As for March, restaurant reservations in Vancouver are at roughly 86 per cent of the pre-pandemic level. In BC, Google’s measure of movement trends is currently about 17 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.

3. Jobs and Hours Worked

Although aggregate employment has recovered in BC to pre-pandemic levels, the accommodation and food service sector was about 12 per cent below the pre-pandemic level in March. The labour market has served high-income workers much better than low-income workers. Employment in high-income industries is about 10 per cent above pre-pandemic employment levels, while employment in low-income industries is about 5 per cent below pre-pandemic employment levels.

4. Manufacturing and International Trade

Manufacturing and exports both rose to a fresh record in February, while imports rose but remained just shy of a record level.

5. Business and Consumer Confidences

Both consumer and business confidence rose slightly in March.

6. Tourism

The number of US and non-US tourists rose in March, with US tourists reaching the highest level since the onset of the pandemic. Still, tourism remains more than two thirds below pre-pandemic levels.

Are you looking to buy or sell property? If you’d like, we can have a real estate expert show you the most efficient process that saves you thousands of dollars, a lot of time, with little or no inconvenience to you. Contact us today!

Source:  BCrea