In the last week of the Vancouver real estate market, activity continued to ramp up after the holidays.

We saw big jumps in activity levels across the board.

Sales rose to 179 (from 147). New Listings were up to 370 (from 272) and Total Active Listings climbed to 2,324 (from 2,222).

Demand continues to outpace supply, however. We saw the all-important months-of-inventory drop further into a Seller's Market to 3.25 (from 3.78).

The hottest sub-markets continue to be East Vancouver condos (1.58 MOI) and townhouses (1.91 MOI). Followed not to far behind by condos (2.86 MOI) and townhouses (2.17 MOI) on the Westside.

Even downtown condos are seeing a strong start to the year. Sales jumped to 51 last week bring the MOI down to just 3.06.

What's interesting is that the detached market seems to be off to slower start. The Westside house market (after a couple of weeks of strengthening) took a step in the OPPOSITE direction...seeing sales fall (13 down from 18) and falling further into a Buyer's...

Winter is typically the quietest period in the Vancouver real estate market. That season begins with the month of December and the onset of the holiday season.

This past December certainly saw that expected decline in market activity.

Sales fell to 763 (-26% month-to-month and -9% year-to-year). While it was down in the most recent comparisons, that sales number was WELL above the 10-year average...28% over, in fact.

Meanwhile, new listings dropped significantly to 613 (-55% month-to-month and -11% year-to-year). This number was +19% over the 10-year average.

I believe that this is the story for December. Both sales and new listings were WAY above what we find is normal for the month...and yet, total active listings reached just 2,225 (-32% month-to-month and -26% year-to-year).

That active listing count is -13% the 10-year average...and the lowest number of listings that we've had in Vancouver in the last five years. It's not since December of 2017 (2,180) that we've had so few options...

Here's your update for the final week of 2021 in Vancouver real estate.

Unsurprisingly, this was a VERY quiet week. Traditionally, the week between Christmas and New Year's Day is the sleepiest of the year...and this week was no different.

There were just 48 sales in the last week. That's a low for the year, by FAR. The NEXT lowest number was 105 in Week 1 of the year.

At the same time there were just 37 new listings. Again, this is a low for the year...but a less dramatic one. The NEXT lowest number was 45, also in Week 1.

Total active listings dropped to 2,118. That's another low for the year, over 16% below the 2,465 low reached LAST week.

The result of all this inactivity is that we find ourselves in a BUYER'S MARKET for the first time in 2021 with 11.03 MOI (shooting up from 3.95).

Is this the beginning of a collapse in our market? Absolutley NOT. This is just a regular seasonal pattern. The most extreme one that we usually see.

No market could have been considered "hot" last week,...