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A similar pattern was on display in April in Toronto, leading association president Cliff Iverson to suggest that Canada’s two hottest markets may have “topped off.”

As homeowners grow wary of selling, prices in Vancouver continue to skyrocket. The association’s benchmark price for all types of real estate across the region rose by 25.34 per cent over the last year to hit $844,800. The benchmark price for a detached home was $1.4 million last month.

The ratio of sales to active listings in April was 63.3 per cent in April in greater Vancouver, which indicates a market strongly in favour of the seller. According to the local real estate board, prices are generally only pushed down if that ratio falls below 12 per cent.

The areas covered by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver include: Whistler, Sunshine Coast, Squamish, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and South Delta.

Across the country, home sales set a new record for April as they gained 10.3 per cent compared with a year ago.

The national association says sales were up in about 70 per cent of all local markets compared with a year ago, boosted by markets in other parts of B.C., as well as southern Ontario. There were 57,669 homes sold nationwide over the Multiple Listing Service in April.

Compared with March, sales were up 3.1 per cent in April.

The national average price for homes sold in April was $508,097, up 13.1 per cent compared with a year ago.

Excluding the Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto markets, the average price was $369,222, up 8.7 per cent from April 2015.

The rise in sales came as the number of new homes put up for sale slipped 3.7 per cent from a year ago to 103,028.

Newly listed homes were down 0.2 per cent in April compared with March. The national sales-to-new listings ratio rose to 64.5 per cent in April, the ratio’s tightest reading since October 2009.