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Real estate in Metro Vancouver in November followed the same template as the last few months. Activities high, inventory low. Home sales in November were 11.9% higher than last November and 33.6% above the 10-year November sales average. The total number of homes listed was 35.7% lower than last November. This high demand with lower supply made sure the price of real estate kept increasing. For detached homes, the benchmark price went up 1.1% compared to last month and 20.8% compared to last November. The apartment benchmark price was up 0.9% over last month and up 11.4% over last November. For attached homes benchmark price was up 1.6% over last month and 20.2% over last November. The provincial government is looking to introduce a cooling off

October was another strong month for Vancouver real estate. The month’s sales were 22.4% above the 10-year October average. Along with decreasing inventory, the pricing pressure has been increasing. This is reflected in the higher sales-to-active listings ratio across all categories. A ratio above 20% for an extended period of time is expected to result in price increases. For detached properties the sales-to-active listings ratio for October is 33.6%. For townhomes it is 64.4% and 46.7% for apartments. Price increased across all categories. For the month of October, the benchmark price for a detached home went up 1.2%. The same for townhomes and 1.1% for apartments. As the price increases continue, it is getting harder and harder for first-time home buyers to enter the market.

It is no big surprise that mom and dad have been helping their children get into their first home in the lower mainland. And as the price of property continue to increase, the demand is greater than ever. What is surprising is how hard it is to get good data on this. CIBC released a report last month on gifted down payments. It summarized their data from 2015 to 2021. In it they state that in Vancouver, around 12% of the first-time home buyers got help to buy their first home  in 2015 and by 2021 this has gone up to around 23% The BC Notary Association did their own survey in 2015 and 2019 to measure the extent of this help and the results

Housing sales in September were 20.8% above the 10-year average while the new listings were 1.2% below the 10-year average. And the total number of homes listed is 27.7% below the 10-year average. The above average sales matched up with the below average inventory means upward pricing pressure. A measure of this supply and demand dynamic is the sales-to-active listings ratio. Extended periods over 20% typically means an increase in prices. For detached homes, this ratio is 25.5% and the price increased 1.2% over the last month. For townhomes the ratio is 53.1% and the price also increased by 1.2% over the last month. For apartments, the ratio is 36.7% and the price increased by 0.5% over the last month. A Re/Max’s recent report estimates

On the surface, it looks like the August market is slowing some more from July. The residential sales figure in August is down 5.2% from the July. However, seasonally August is a slower month. Adjusted for seasonality, August was actually more active than July. The August sales figure is actually 20.4% above the 10-year  August sales average, while last month’s sales was only 13.3% above the 10-year July sales average. The pace of new listings is not keeping up with the sales. Compared to last month, the new listings dropped by 7.9%. The total number of homes currently listed for sales is 8.6% lower than in July. This is reflected in the general increase in the sales-to-active listings ratio and the pricing strength of the

The market is still active in July but has been declining for several months now. Nevertheless, July’s sales were still 13.3% above the 10-year July average. New listings are particularly low. 12.3% below the 10-year average and 25.2% lower than the month before. Maybe as the covid restrictions loosen and the summer is upon us, people are putting their housing plans on hold. The sales-to-active listings ratio remains elevated but pricing increase has slowed and for townhomes it has actually reversed. While typically ratios above 20% indicate an upward pricing pressure, pricing increase has stalled. The sales-to-active listings ratio for detached homes is 25.5% but there is no increase in the benchmark price over last month. However, it is an amazing 21% higher than last