Dear Stuart,

Westside detached home sales and listing activity in March continues to trend below the long term averages.

Compared to the 10 year average, the westside supply was down 19% for detached homes, up 7% for apartments and up 4% for townhomes.

Compared to the 10 year average, the westside demand was down 26% for detached homes, 29% for apartments and 37% for townhomes.

Median home prices in March are down 9.6% for detached homes (from the peak Oct.2017), 5.1% for apartments (peak Jan.2018) and 13.8% (peak Feb.2022) for attached homes.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) says that residential property sales in the region decreased 42.5% to 2,535 in March from 4405 sales in March 2022. This is down 28.4% from the 10 year March sales average.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reported that the benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is $1,143,900 which is a 9.5% decrease from March 2022, and a 1.8% increase from last month.

The total number of properties currently offered for sale on the MLS system in Metro Vancouver is 8617, up 8.1% compared to 7970 in March 2022 but that is still 17.3% below the 10 year seasonal average of 10,421 listings.

Prices this spring are already on track to out perform out 2023 forecast, which anticipated modest price increases of 1 - 2 % across all product types, said Andrew Lis, REBGV’s director of economics and data analytics. The surprise is that the price increases are occurring in the face of elevated borrowing costs, below average sales and slow listing activity that suggests sellers are waiting for more favourable market conditions. 

Aggressive sellers, pricing sharply, are now getting lots of attention and offers over asking prices in some cases. Too many sellers are still over optimistic regarding market price and those listings languish because the buyers are fewer and further between

Notwithstanding the short supply and reduced demand, rates will still play a part in the pace of market activity and it is now more expensive and more difficult to get a mortgage both factors inclined to slow the market down.

Rates only started to increase in April 2022 and we are just now seeing a full year of their effect on the market. As those mortgage renewals come up and new borrowers have to qualify at the new higher rates, we will see how that effects our market and prices.

The consensus among many economists and forecasters is that the Bank of Canada is at or near the peak of interest rate increases which inclines many sellers to hold on until demand built on factors like population growth can start to push up prices again.

March was the month of peak activity in 2022 @ 122 sales and we are 24% below that @ 93 sales for March 2023 so I am hoping we will do better in April.🤞

Happy Easter! 🐰 🐇🐣 🐤 🐥 🐝🌸 🌼

Stay safe and healthy.

Best regards,

Stuart

The supply of westside detached homes in March was 503, down slightly from 508 in February and down 16.9% compared to 605 last year in March 2022. 

Sales of westside detached homes this March increased 50% from Feb (93 vs 62) and were 24% lower than March 2022. This is 26% lower than the March ten year average of 125 sales.

Months of Supply, (MOS) in March is down 34% from last month to 5.4 from 8.2 in February and up 9% from March 2022. (A balanced market keeping prices relatively flat now appears to be 7 to 10 MOS). The March average price was up 13% from February at $4.086M and the median detached home price increased 2.9% to $3.48M. Current prices are down 9.9% on average & 9.6% on median from the peaks in Oct 2017 and Jul 2017. 

The highest sale price for a Westside detached home in March was $24M. It was on the market for 32 days before it sold. The lowest price was $1.651M. It was on the market for 15 days. Of the 93 sales, 21 received the asking price or more and 72 sold below the asking price.

Westside apartment supply increased 4.8% in March to 1242 from 1185 in February and was relatively the same as we had in March 2022. At the same time, demand increased 51% to 314 sales from 208 sales in February and this is down 48% from 600 sales in March 2022. Apartment sales are down 29% from the ten year average of 445 sales.

MOS in March decreased 31% to 4 from 5.7 in February and this is up 92% from 2.1 in March 2022.

The average price in March decreased 7% ($957 v $1028K) from February 2023 and was down 12% from March 2022. The median price was up 6% from February ($835 v $787) and is down 3.6% from March 2022. Average prices are still down by 20.2% from the peak of $1.199M and median prices are down 5.1% from the peak in January 2018.

Westside townhouse supply increased 1.4% in March from February (210 vs 207), and was same as March 2022 (209). Demand in March is down slightly from February (42 vs 43 sales) and down 44% from last March 2022 (42 v 75). Attached home sales are down 37% from the 10 year average of 67 sales.

With supply up slightly and demand down slightly, current MOS increased 4% to 5. That is up 79% from 3 in February 2022.

Townhouse average prices at $1.651M in March were up 7% from February and were down 1.7% from $1.548M last March 2022. Median prices are basically unchanged in March from February (1.651M v 1.679M) and are down 4.6% from March 2022. The average price is down 11% from the peak of $1.854M in Nov. 2021. The median price is down 13.8% from the peak of $1.799M in February 2022.