Week 22 – Vancouver Real Estate Week in Review (May 24th – May 30th, 2020)

Week 22 – Market Update

Overview

For the second week in a row the 22nd week of 2020 flashed some promising signals.

This was by no means a good week in terms of the Vancouver real estate market. However, given the uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic there are generally positive signs.

We see that in general sales are trending upwards, inventory levels are stabilizing and time on market is decreasing. These are all positive signs and indicate that the worst (at least for now) is likely behind us (that being mostly mid-April).
Vancouver West (Westside)
Houses (Detached Homes) – Vancouver West

This past week we saw the highest number of sales since the pandemic took hold in late March. Two of the last three weeks also saw a significant number of over asking price sales and total inventory has tapered…although the time on market remains elevated.

Apartments – Vancouver West

Sales more than doubled over the previous week. Returning to levels not seen since the pandemic began. There’s also been healthy numbers of over-asking price sales. Inventory levels have tapered but time on market remains high.

Townhouses (Attached) – Vancouver West

There was a slight dip in the number of sales of townhouses on the Westside last week…something to watch in coming weeks. I suspect that this was an anomaly given the general trends throughout the city. Time on market fell significantly as did the listing inventory.

East Vancouver (Eastside)

Houses (Detached Homes) – East Vancouver

Sales of houses in East Vancouver increased over the past week. Total inventory levels dipped as well. As with most of the other categories we cover, time on market did not mediate. However, it doubled from 29 days to 58…perhaps indicating that buyers were scouring the market for deals as they sense the market improving.

Apartments – East Vancouver

Sales of East Vancouver apartments held fairly steady the last couple of weeks, well off their mid-April lows. Meanwhile, inventory levels also held steady as did time on market. Sales over asking price jumped from just 1 the previous week to 5 this past week.

Townhouses (Attached) – East Vancouver

Attached properties in East Vancouver held their own. Inventory levels climbed slightly, sales dropped a touch as did sales over asking. So while all other areas trended a bit weaker the one area that showed significant positive improvement was the time on market for sales. This went from 49 the previous week to 12 this past week.

Downtown Vancouver
Apartments – Downtown Vancouver

It was a fairly flat week for downtown Vancouver apartments. On the whole sales, over asking price sales and time on market kept even from the previous couple weeks (all much improved over mid-April). The one area where there was a bit of weakness was with inventory levels rising from 628 to 692…but that’s not unusual for the time of year.

Townhouses (Attached) – Downtown Vancouver

There are signs of life returning to the downtown Vancouver townhouse market. It’s the smallest of the 8 categories we follow, so with the recent slowdown there was little to report for a few weeks. In the last couple of weeks one sale did take place in each of those weeks. One even sold over it’s asking price.

Summary

It’s clear that activity is returning to the Vancouver real estate market. That activity is significantly lower than what we would typically see at this time of year, but that’s not news to anyone.

What is interesting is that during the last couple of weeks of May in particular we see activity levels rising and stability returning to our market. The slowest period was mid-April.

This uptick coincides with Vancouver beginning to open back up. Optimism amongst buyers looks to be driven by the messaging we are receiving from the media as well as government that the worst is behind us.