A rebound in Metro Vancouver prices in the first quarter of 2014 has pushed single-family homes back into the upper reaches of unaffordability on RBC’s regular housing-affordability index.

The rise is a matter of supply and demand, said RBC senior economist Robert Hogue. Builders keep building more condominiums — which remain relatively affordable in Metro Vancouver — and buyers keep bidding up prices on single-family homes.

“Single-family homes are out there (on the market) with a premium, so it’s less and less likely the average family can afford them,” Hogue said.

And in Metro Vancouver, there is the added factor of immigrant buyers with “deeper pockets showing up in the market able to outbid others,” Hogue added.

The RBC affordability index tracks a theoretical measure of the proportion of median family income it would take to cover monthly home ownership costs.

The price of a Metro Vancouver detached bungalow rose six per cent to $832,600 in the first quarter compared with the first quarter of 2013, pushing its index score up 2.4 percentage points to 82.4 per cent.

For a two-storey house, the value increased five per cent to $869,300 in the first quarter, pushing its index score up 1.6 percentage points to 86.5 per cent.

The standard Metro Vancouver condominium, however, saw its average price decline about one per cent to $391,500 in the first quarter, bringing its affordability measure down 0.6 points to 40 per cent.

It is a trend being seen in other big cities such as Toronto, and less so in Montreal, where the push to build “more up as opposed to out (into urban sprawl)” is resulting in bigger inventories of condominiums relative to houses, Hogue said.

That’s also the observation of Vancouver realtor Tom Gradecak, of Westside Tom Gradecak Realty, considering the numbers of multi-family housing projects being built in the city.

“The condo (market) is most reliant on the local economy, local buyers, local sellers,” Gradecak said. “Houses, a big part of their appeal is to Mainland (China) type buyers. They want a single-family house.”

Nationally, the RBC index rose by 0.1 points to 43.2 per cent for detached bungalows, and 0.3 points to 49.0 per cent for two-storey homes, while the measure for condos dipped 0.1 points to 27.9 per cent.

depenner@vancouversun.com

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With files from The Canadian Press