The federal government–owned Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. has forecast a drop in real estate prices of between nine and 18 percent over the next year.

A significant factor is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made it more difficult for many homeowners to cover their mortgage payments.

And new statistics from the B.C. Real Estate Association suggest that cost of homes is on the decline province.

The average multiple-listing service price in May was $728,898, according to a news release issued this morning.

Last month, the BCREA reported that the average MLS price in April B.C. was $737,834.

That amounts to a 1.2 percent decline on a month-by-month basis.

However, the BCREA noted in its news release that the average MLS price is still 3.2 percent above the figure recorded in May 2019.

The dollar-volume of sales, however, was 43.5 percent below that recorded in the same month a year ago.

BCREA chief economist Brendan Ogmundson characterized all of this as "encouraging signs of recovery in May".

"While activity is still far below normal, both sales and listings are up significantly from April’s lows,” he said.