The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) released some interesting statistics last week, showing that while "there were fewer housing sales in March 2008 compared to last year, residential prices continued to climb."
This could mean that we are coming into what could be described as a "balanced" market.
"The market is continuing to balance, with sales and listings beginning to re-align with our 10-year averages," says REBGV president, Dave Watt. "The selection of inventory hitting the market is wider than we have seen in the past few years, which gives prospective buyers more choices."
For Buyers, this is good news, as they will have a little more time to shop around and consider their purchase. For Sellers, this just emphasizes the importance of pricing your home sharply the first time around. A well priced property is still going to be highly sought after and sell quickly, as interest rates remain low and buyers seek to get into the market or climb to the next rung on the property ladder.
Here are the stats for March as reported by the REBGV (FYI - benchmarks represent a typical property within each market);
Residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 2,997 in March 2008, a decline of 16.3 per cent from the 3,582 residential sales recorded in March 2007, and a decline of 25.7 per cent compared to the 4,033 sales in March 2006. New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties increased four per cent to 5,674 in March 2008 compared with March 2007, when 5,456 new units were listed."
Sales of detached properties declined 20.2 per cent to 1,116 from the 1,399 detached sales recorded during the same period in 2007. The benchmark price, as calculated by the MLSLink Housing Price Index®, for detached properties rose 12.1 per cent from March 2007 to $764,616.
Sales of apartment properties in March 2008 declined 10.6 per cent to 1,370, compared to 1,532 sales in March 2007. The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 11.5 per cent from March 2007 to $389,609.
Attached property sales in March 2008 are down 21.5 per cent to 511, compared with the 651 sales in March 2007. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 10.6 per cent between March 2007 and 2008 to $473,543.
Depending on what happens with interest rates over the next couple of months the market should heat up over the spring, as many experts are predicting we should see another drop. This should encourage more buyers to get into the market.
In my opinion, I think we'll see a busy and buoyant market for both buyers and sellers this spring.
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