If you’re looking for a real estate market with ever-increasing prices or dizzying drops in sales, better go somewhere else. There’s no excitement here, folks.
MLS® house prices, sales and listings in the Fraser Valley have been chugging along like a diesel-powered delivery van all year… and isn’t that refreshing!
For instance:
- Sales-to-listings ratios have stayed in buyers’ market territory since February, hovering between 14 and 15 per cent.
- Benchmark prices for townhouses and condos have basically been flat since mid-2009.
- Benchmark prices for detached homes have increased by a gentle 3.5 per cent in a year.
- Average time on market has been 44 days, give or take a day, for four months.
Sales and Listings
Overall sales are down, both month over month and year over year, but the decreases are modest compared to those of the Greater Vancouver real estate market:
- m/m -9.5 per cent compared to REBGV’s -17.2 per cent
- y/y -7.9 per cent compared to REBGV’s -27.6 per cent
| June2012/May2012 | June 2012/ June 2011 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Sales | -9.5% | -7.9% |
| - Detached | -4.4% | -9.9% |
| - Attached | -10.4% | -3.7% |
| - Apartment | -25.7% | -10.2% |
| New Listings | -12.3% | +4.9% |
| Active Listings | -1.4% | +9.4% |
“Although our inventory is trending at historically high levels, sales have remained steady so we’re not seeing significant downward pressure on residential prices overall,” says FVREB president Scott Olson.
MLS® Home Price Index & Benchmark Prices
The MLS Home Price Index for houses and townhouses continued to rise slightly in the Fraser Valley, compared to Greater Vancouver, where the HPI has dipped for all housing types. Looking at the breakdown for all housing types and areas, the changes on the HPI range from 1 per cent to -1 per cent, with only a few exceptions.
Townhouses were weakest, with the index dropping in six out of eight areas, including drops of 5.8 per cent in North Surrey, 3 per cent in Mission and 1.3 per cent in Langley.
| June 2012 | May 2012 | June 2011 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | $551,000 | +0.5% | +3.6% |
| Attached | $305,000 | -0.6% | 0.0% |
| Apartment | $205,800 | +0.3% | +1.2% |
You can read the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s full breakdown of statistics here.
