Vancouver Real Estate Statistics - June 2019
Months of Inventory (MOI)* dropped for all Vancouver Westside home types in May 2019 indicating a boost to the market. It is pretty typical to see the market at its hottest sometime in the Spring and often it is in May. When we look back later this year, May or June will likely have been the market's high point for 2019 sales volumes.
Sales volumes grew significantly for all home types in May compared with the preceeding two months. That being said, March and April were not great months for sales volumes. We may see another small boost in June but most likely sales volumes will decline through the rest of the summer.
Apartment active listing volumes had remained below typical levels for several years between 2015-2018. They are now back in a more typical range and creating downward price pressure.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's HPI Price (price of a "typical" home) continues to slide downward for all home types.
The best value at the moment is in townhouses on a price per square foot basis.
Average sales prices in May showed a small boost for detached Westside homes.
The quick summary is that May was a pretty good month when compared with the preceding few but it is unlikely to be the herald of a market change. Expect the market to continue to decline. If you know you want to sell over the next couple of years, I would council against "waiting for things to get better" as the wait could be a very long time before we see prices at their previous high points. Intelligent pricing is crucial to selling in a down trending market and has been the key to my success with my 2019 listings. The current market is a boon for buyers: plenty to see, low pressure to choose and things keep on trending down. Interest rates have begun to fall but they have not yet made much of an impact.
By Sam Wyatt - Vancouver Realtor.
*Months of Inventory (MOI) is a measure derived from the number of active listings during a given month divided by the number of sales that month. It indicates the theoretical length of time it would take to sell all of the properties on the market if nothing changed. Historically, 0-5 months of inventory has generally implied upward price pressure ("Seller's Market"), 5-8 months of inventory has indicated a flat market with respect to pricing ("Balanced Market") and over 8 months of inventory has, for the most part, precipitated downward price pressure ("Buyer's Market").