July 2020 – Vancouver Real Estate Market Update

Summary

July continued the trend of improvement in market activity. The worst month was April and since then each subsequent month has increased activity levels.

Across the board, there were positive improvements over June. Sales were up 19% over the previous month (7% over the previous year). Total listings rose just 9% from the previous month and were down 12% y-o-y. Meanwhile, every housing type saw increases both m-t-m as well as y-o-y.

The weekly stats that I’m following indicate that we might be starting to see the beginning of this positive momentum stall…but that’s not surprising given that we are now at the height of summer and most people are focusing on vacations rather than real estate.

July 2020 - Vancouver Real Estate - Total Active Listings

Parting Thoughts

As I mentioned last month, there is definitely a wide disparity in the market. Certain pockets are seeing enormous amounts of demand while others are languishing.

Of note, the hottest market is East Vancouver houses. That segment is seeing close to 50% of sales selling over-asking price. East Vancouver condos are also performing well…while downtown condos have struggled in recent weeks.

I also mentioned last month the possibility that the increase in sales was artificially driven by impending changes to CMHC lending rules. This was definitely not the case as we saw continued strength return to demand AFTER these changes took affect.

I suspect that August numbers will be a little softer than July. We will likely end with higher levels of inventory and lower sales numbers…but that is a typical pattern we see at this time of year and nothing to be overly concerned about.