HOUSING prices on the North Shore are remaining steady, despite a dramatic recent drop-off in real estate sales.

Numbers released by the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board showed sales of townhouses in North Vancouver fell 53 per cent between June and July while sales of detached homes dropped by 33 per cent. Sales between May and July in North Vancouver were also down as much as 30 per cent over the same period last year.

The story was similar in West Vancouver, where sales of detached homes were down 15 per cent from June. Sales between May and July were also down about 19 per cent over the same time last year.

The number of new listings has also fallen off.

Tightening of mortgage qualification rules, rising interest rates and uncertainty about the global economy is making both buyers and sellers jittery, said Rudy Nielson, president of Landcor, a company which analyzes real estate trends.

"A lot of people are just hunkering down," and watching to see where the economy is heading, he said.

That's a contrast to the earlier part of this year, where sellers rushed to put their homes on the market before the mortgage rules and interest rates changed. Many people also mistakenly believed the HST applied to re-sales of existing homes, said Neilson.

Sales numbers in the Metro Vancouver area are now down to levels not seen since 2001 and 2002, said Tsur Sommerville, associate professor with the Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate at UBC's Sauder School of Business.

But despite that, prices haven't budged much, remaining close to the record-high levels set in April of this year.

The median selling price of a detached home in North Vancouver was $850,000 in July -- down just slightly from the $875,000 median price set between January and July this year.

In West Vancouver, the median selling price of a house was a staggering $1.3 million, down from the $1.7 million median price set the month before.

Benchmark prices for an "average" house within the two communities also remained stratospheric -- at $913,000 and $1.35 million respectively.

Neilson said one reason prices haven't fallen is that the geographic constraints of the Lower Mainland keep land prices high. "The cheapest lots are $350,000, $400,000 and go up to $800,000," he said.

Prices could level off, said Neilson, but he doesn't see a major real estate downturn. People from other areas of Canada -- and other parts of the world -- still want to come to the Lower Mainland, he said.

"We think it's expensive, but (compared to many areas of the world) it's not," he said.

Sommerville added housing prices tend to be "sticky."

"Even when there's pressure for prices to fall, they don't necessarily fall right away," he said.

Normally, prices only fall steeply when there is a lot of unsold inventory or "the economy is really tanking."

"The market is very much about where (people) think things are going over the long term," he said. "There is a psychology to (the housing market) that's different (than other commodities)."

When people from other parts of the country want to buy here despite high prices, it offers people reassurance, he said -- " 'Oh, other people want to be here and want to make the same decisions I've made.' "

jseyd@nsnews.com