June 2020 – Vancouver Real Estate Market Update

Summary

The rebounding trend that began in May continued in June.

Every indicator (except price) moved in a positive direction this past month.

Sales were up nearly 60% from last month (and almost 19% from the previous year). While new listings matched that pace up 60% over last month, TOTALl listings increased only 10% over the previous month (and -25% from the previous year).

In hindsight, it appears that the market saw an ebb in activity levels in mid-April. The trend that I’ve been noticing in my review of the weekly real estate statistics, is that nearly every week since has seen improvements in activity.

It would appear that both buyers and sellers are becoming more and more comfortable in our current environment. Messaging from government has helped to shape sentiment, but also efforts by realtors to make the entire buying or selling process safer have helped.

Parting Thoughts

I do want to point out that we are seeing an unusually disparate market. Some pockets are incredibly hot (say, affordable east Vancouver condominiums) while other pockets are seeing more sustained softness (such as high-end condos downtown).

I am watching very closely if the overall up-trend in sales continues. One pool of thought is that the recent boost in buying was artificially boosted by recently announced changes to CMHC lending requirements that took affect July 1st.