Market Update: September 2019

Market Update: September 2019

The last couple of years have not been great for sellers of real estate....nor for anyone who works in and around real estate! Government interventions have had a significant impact. In Vancouver we have seen all levels of government take action to slow the market; in the rest of the Province interventions have come from the federal and provincial governments. Many buyers have not taken advantage of the slow market to the extent that they could have, resulting in  the number of homes sold being far below the 10 year average, even though prices have been going down. In some areas price drops have been modest-around 12-13%-while in other areas, particularly in relation to high end homes, the price drops have been very significant. Each neighbourhood, and housing type, needs to be considered on its own.

After many months of very low sales volumes and steadily trending downward prices, the summer did show some improvement. This is unusual as the summer is not normally a busy time in real estate. While prices DID NOT go up; some sales occurred, including sales of some homes which had been on the market for a very long time. A number of these sales occurred due to sellers adjusting their prices to the new market reality, while others seem to have been the result of buyers deciding to get off the sidelines and take advantage of the most buyer friendly market we have seen in recent memory! 

Over the summer we saw:

-increased sales volumes in May-August-substantially better than the first 4 months of 2019 and most of 2018

-the first 5 months of the year there were less than 2000 sales per month but the last few months there were over 2000 sales per month

-sales in August 2019 were up 16% over August 2018, however still 9.2% below the 10 year average

-prior to May, less than 12% of listings were selling; May-August 17% of listings were selling

-sales were still below the 10 year average for the entire year to date in spite of the improvements

-prices have still been falling; however over the summer prices fell at a slower rate than had been occurring since last year

-prices still trending downward in most areas
-homes in the higher price points, particularly over $3 million dollars, are seeing the least amount of activity

Having just experienced an unusually strong summer, we are expecting the fall to be even better. The fall market is generally one of the best we see all year. If you have been holding off on selling the market is, at least for now, moving in your favour slightly. If you are a buyer hoping to take advantage of a great buyers' (or investors') market, you might want to act now. While the information here provides a general picture of the market, these averages can be out of touch with what may be happening in any given housing pocket. If you would like to know how your neighbourhood has been doing, please let me know and I can provide more specific information. If you would like more information about opportunities in a particular market, please let me know.