Dear Stuart,

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

Compared to the 10 year average, the westside supply was down 17% for detached homes, up 7% for apartments and up11% for townhomes.

Compared to the 10 year average, the westside demand was down 42% for detached homes, 42% for apartments and 15% for townhomes.

Median home prices in February are down 12.1% for detached homes (from the peak Oct.2017), 10.6% for apartments (peak Jan.2018) and 13.9% (peak Feb.2022) for attached homes.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) says that residential property sales in the region decreased 47.2% to 1,808 in Feb. from 3424 sales in Feb. 2022. This is a 76.9% increase from the 1022 homes sold in Jan. 2023 and down 33% from the 10 year Feb. sales average.

The total number of properties currently offered on the MLS® system in Metro Vancouver is 7868, up 16.7% compared to 6742 in Feb. 2022 and up 5.2% from 7,478 last month.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reported that the benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is $1,123,400 which is a 9.3% decrease from Feb. 2022, and a 1.1% increase from last month.

“While we continue to expect home price trends to show year-over-year declines for a few more months, current data and market activity suggest pricing is firming up. In fact, some leading indicators suggest we may see modest price increases this spring, particularly if sales activity increases and mortgage rates hold steady,”  said Andrew Lis, REBGV’s director of economics and data analytics. 

In the somewhat unusual market environment we find ourselves in right now with higher mortgage rates and fewer sales, inventory is inching higher but remains far from abundant.

Rates went up by only half a point in January so it will be interesting to see if buyers and sellers have adjusted to the higher borrowing costs and will 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 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.

The current reluctance among sellers to list their homes is leading to below average sales activity and is allowing supply to increase which may ease upward pressure on prices.

We welcome Spring this month! 🌷🌞🐣

Stay safe and healthy.

Best regards,

Stuart

The supply of westside detached homes in February was 508, up 6.5% from 477 in January and down 9.1% compared to 559 last year in February 2022. 

Sales of westside detached homes this February increased 148% from Jan (62 vs 25) and were 38.6% lower than February 2022. This is 42% lower than the February ten year average of 106 sales.

Months of Supply, (MOS) in February is down 57% from last month to 8.2 from 19.1 in January and up 48% from February 2022. (A balanced market keeping prices relatively flat now appears to be 7 to 10 MOS). The February average price was down 18% from January at $3.617M and the median detached home price decreased 1.4% to $3.383M. Current prices are down 20.3% on average & 12.1% on median from the peaks in Oct 2017 and Jul 2017. 

The highest sale price for a Westside detached home in February was $8.99M. It was on the market for 540 days before it sold. The lowest price was $1.9M. It was on the market for 185 days. Of the 62 sales, 17 received the asking price or more and 45 sold below the asking price.

Westside apartment supply increased 5.6% in February to 1185 from 1122 in January and increased 2.5% from the 1156 listings we had in February 2022. At the same time, demand increased 39% to 208 sales from 150 sales in January and this is down 58% from 490 sales in February 2022. Apartment sales are down 42% from the ten year average of 357 sales.

MOS in February decreased 23.8% to 5.7 from 7.5 in January and this is up 141% from 2.4 in February 2022.

The average price in February increased 10% ($1028 v $935K) from January 2023 and was down 7.8% from February 2022. The median price was down 3% from January ($787 v $812) and is down 10.6% from February 2022. Average prices are still down by 14.2% from the peak of $1.199M and median prices are down 10.6% from the peak in January 2018.

Westside townhouse supply increased 1.5% in February from January (207 vs 204), and was same as February 2022 (207). Demand in February is up from January (43 vs 20 sales) and down 39% from last February 2022 (43 v 70). Attached home sales are down 15% from the 10 year average of 50 sales.

With supply up slightly and demand up, current MOS decreased 53% to 4.8. That is up 63% from 3 in February 2022.

Townhouse average prices at $1.547M in February were down 15% from January and were down 15.3% from $1.828M last February 2022. Median prices are down 10.3% in February from January (1.548M v 1.725M) and are down 13.9% from February 2022. The average price is down 16.5% from the peak of $1.854M in Nov. 2021. The median price is down 13.9% from the peak of $1.799M in February 2022.