Week 29 – Market Update
Overview

The “spring” market continues so far this summer in Vancouver,.

Overall, listings rose in just about every category across the city this past week. New listings continued to come onto the market as sellers confidence has increased in recent weeks…but the pace of new listings slowed somewhat over the previous week.

Meanwhile, sales numbers remained at the higher levels we saw in the last couple of weeks.

At this point, I think it’s safe to put any concerns about the CMHC lending rule changes behind us. This makes two consecutive weeks of solid sales number AFTER these rules came into effect.

Vancouver West (Westside)

The Westside remains the geographic division that is seeing a slower recovery.

In particular, houses on the westside are not seeing the market surge seen in East Vancouver. Listings are increasing as elsewhere in the city, but sales have not yet recovered to pre-COVID levels (albeit sales were faster this past week...

Week 28 – Market Update
Overview

The market continues to behave more like the early spring than summer. That seems somewhat appropriate given the weather in recent weeks…but it’s not typical of this time of year.

This week saw a rise in inventory levels as well as (mostly) increasing sales. New listings coming onto the market saw a bigger jump than in recent weeks. Some segments of the market had the highest sales numbers of the year in the past week (such as East Vancouver houses).

This first full week after CMHC lending rules came into effect July 1st appears to indicate sales numbers were NOT artificially inflated by this change.

Vancouver West (Westside)

On the Westside the market is flashing some signals of weakness. Houses in particular have struggled in the last couple of weeks with inventory rising, sales numbers shrinking (for two consecutive weeks) and days on market growing.

Similar weakness is showing for apartments as well as townhouses but not as significantly....

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...

Week 27 – Market Update
Overview

Mostly, the last week saw the trends we’ve been following in the last few weeks continue. Inventory levels are levelling while sales continue to increase.

As I mentioned last week, we do need to put this activity in perspective. While sales are up, they are NOT at normal levels for this time of year…and are generally hovering around the levels we were seeing just prior to pandemic in the early spring.

I believe that the boost in sales we’ve seen MAY be due to buyers trying to get deals completed prior to new lending rules coming into effect on July 1st. The next few weeks will be telling in that regard.

Vancouver West (Westside)

Of note on the Westside, is that all categories saw a drop in inventory. Sales didn’t increase much, if at all…but they held firm across the board. The one exception to this was for Westside houses where sales fell from 25 the week before to 18 this past week.

I also found the rise and divergence...

Week 26 – Market Update
Overview

This was another good week for the Vancouver real estate market. That is, at least in relative terms.

Activity is significantly below what is normal for this time of year. However, across the board the trends are positive. We are seeing a return to sales levels not seen since pre-pandemic.

That being said, we need to watch to see what happens in coming weeks. This boost in activity COULD be due to buyers trying to get deals done prior to new CMHC lending rules coming into effect this week.

Vancouver West (Westside)

Westside houses are saw sales return to levels more in line with early spring pre-pandemic numbers. They increased this past week from 16 to 25. Inventory levels, meanwhile decreased (marginally) for the first time in a month.

Westside apartments didn’t fare quite as well. Sales fell for the first time in a couple of weeks from 40 down to 29 and inventory levels inched up from 651 to 675. Although, the units that did sell sold much...

eek 25 – Market Update
Overview

This was another week where there were many signs of improvements in the Vancouver real estate market. Pretty much across the board there were increasing levels of activity.

The boost we are seeing right now MAY be due to active buyers attempting to get deals done before new CMHC lending rules come into effect as of July 1st…something which we will only know for certain in a couple of weeks.

Vancouver West (Westside)

Both detached homes and apartments saw steady improvement in the last week. While total listings increased, it was at a slower pace keeping supply levels low. Meanwhile, demand held steady (for houses) or increased (for apartments).

The Westside Townhouse market saw a big drop in sales, though (from 10 the previous week to just 3 this week).

East Vancouver (Eastside)

The bright spot in the market appears to be East Vancouver detached homes. On all fronts there were significant improvements in the last week.

Specifically, after weeks...

Week 24 – Market Update
Overview

This past week in the Vancouver real estate market was generally flat, with marginal signs of improvement. The general trend is that sales are increasing modestly along with total active listings.

For the most part, it would appear that we’ve found a balance between buyers and sellers. Vancouver West (Westside)

The Westside showed the most consistent improvement week to week. Across the board, the Vancouver West market got better whether that was houses, apartments or townhouses…but only marginally so.

Sales rose in all three categories. Total listings increased, but only slightly (normal at this time of year) and days on market (DOM) either held firm or fell.

East Vancouver (Eastside)

This past week we saw improvements in the East Vancouver market. Most notably, in houses where sales increased while DOM (days on market) fell significantly.

Houses and Apartments improved marginally, but East Vancouver townhouses saw a reversal of last week...

Week 23 – Market Update
Overview

If I was to characterize the week, it would be to say that it held it’s own. The market did not (generally) trend positively or negatively.

So, after seeing last week improve considerably over the week before it’s a positive to see these gains hold.

We are seeing most activity happen at the lower, more affordable price points. If there is weakness it is in the more luxurious price segments.

One area that I did take notice of is East Vancouver townhouses. That appears to be particularly strong with just 1.5 months of inventory and 40% of sales having sold in multiple offers (4 of 10).

Vancouver West (Westside)

The Westside showed a bit more weakness than other parts of the city, but only marginally so. This makes sense if the strongest parts of the market right now are the affordable price bands.

Houses saw a slight deterioration over the previous week. Sales dropped, inventory climbed slightly and DOM also increased. The average and median sale...

May appeared to be an improvement on April.

Most indicators flashed positively for the month. Specifically, sales were up 36% from the previous month. New listings were also up strongly by 57% from April. However, total active listings held fairly steady rising just 2.5%.

It would appear that both buyers and sellers (and their agents) spent May getting comfortable with things. There was no panic, but there was a steady increase in activity from mid-April through to the end of May.

Now, numbers are still significantly depressed compared to “normal” market activity at this time of year. What we have is a market that has adjusted to new realities. Because of this, prices have remained fairly steady over the course of the last couple of months.

If there are areas that saw outsized strength in the past month it is in the detached homes. That’s an area that has lagged for some time…but this past month saw healthy upticks in prices for houses in both the Westside and Eastside...

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...