Dear Stuart,

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

Compared to the 10 year average, the westside supply was down 3% for detached homes, up 17% for apartments and up 32% for townhomes.

Compared to the 10 year average, the westside demand was down 47% for detached homes, 28% for apartments and 54% for townhomes.

Median home prices in December are down 15.2% for detached homes (from the peak Oct.2017), 6% for apartments (peak Jan.2018) and 14% (peak Feb.2022) for attached homes.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) says that residential property sales in the region decreased 51.8% to 1,295 in Dec. from 2688 sales in Dec 2021. This is a 19.8% decrease from the 1614 homes sold in Nov. 2022 and down 37.7% from the 10 year Dec. sales average.

The total number of properties currently offered on the MLS® system in Metro Vancouver is 7384, up 41% compared to 5,236 in Dec. 2021 and down 19.6% from 9,179 last month.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reported that the benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is $1,114,300 which is a 3.3% decrease from Dec. 2021, 1.5% down from last month and is down 9.8% over the last 6 months.

“Closing out 2022, the data show that the Bank of Canada’s decisions to increase the policy rate at seven of the eight interest rate announcement dates in 2022 has translated into downward pressure on home sale activity and, to a lesser extent, home prices in Metro Vancouver,” said Andrew Lis, REBGV’s director of economics and data analytics. “While the consensus among many economists and forecasters suggests the Bank of Canada may be near the end of this tightening cycle, rates may remain elevated for longer than previously expected since the latest inflation figures aren’t showing signs of abating quickly. We’ll watch the 2023 spring market closely to see if buyers and sellers have adjusted to the higher borrowing-costs and are participating more actively in the market than we have seen over the last 12 months.” 

Rates only started to increase in April 2022 and we have not seen a full year of their effect on the market. As those mortgage renewals come up and new borrowers have to qualify at 7%, we will see how that effects our market and prices.

Happy New Year and all the best for 2023!🍾🎉🎊

Stay safe and healthy.

Best regards,

Stuart

The supply of westside detached homes in December was 505, down 13% from 581 in November and down 6% compared to 535 last year in December 2021. 

Sales of westside detached homes this December decreased 27% from Nov (38 vs 52) and were 50% lower than December 2021. This is 47% lower than the December ten year average of 72 sales.

Months of Supply, (MOS) in December is up 19% from last month to 13.3 from 11.2in November and up 89% from December 2021. (A balanced market keeping prices relatively flat now appears to be 7 to 10 MOS). The December average price was down 3% from November at $3.524M and the median detached home price increased 2.2% to $3.262M. Current prices are down 22% on average & 15% on median from the peaks in Oct 2017 and Jul 2017. 

The highest sale price for a Westside detached home in December was $8.5M. It was on the market for 136 days before it sold. The lowest price was $1.8M. It was on the market for 29 days. Of the 38 sales, 7 received the asking price or more and 31 sold below the asking price.

Westside apartment supply decreased 21% in December to 1130 from 1427 in November and increased 13% from the 1003 listings we had in December 2021. At the same time, demand decreased 16% to 190 sales from 225 sales in November and this is down 45% from 344 sales in December 2021. Apartment sales are down 28% from the ten year average of 263 sales.

MOS in November decreased 6.2% to 5.9 from 6.3 in November and this is up 104% from 2.9 in December 2021.

The average price in December increased 2.9% ($993 v $965K) from November 2022 and was up 3.1% from December 2021. The median price was up 5.1% from November ($829 v $789) and is down 2.8% from December 2021. Average prices are still down by 17% from the peak of $1.199M and median prices are down 6% from the peak in January 2018.

Westside townhouse supply decreased 20% in December from November (213 vs 266), and was up 25% from December 2021 (213 v 170). Demand in December is down from November (15 vs 28 sales) and down 66% from last December 2021 (15 v 44). Attached home sales are down 54% from the 10 year average of 33 sales.

With supply and demand down, current MOS increased 49.5% to 14.2. That is up 267% from 3.9 in December 2021.

Townhouse average prices at $1.646M in December were unchanged from November and were up 3.5% from $1.589M last December 2021. Median prices are up 4.2% in December from November (1.547M v 1.4784M) and are down 4.8% from December 2021. The average price is down 11.3% from the peak of $1.854M in Nov. 2021. The median price is down 14% from the peak of $1.799M in February 2022.