
I guess it comes with the job.
"How's the market?" is, by far, the #1 most asked question to any Realtor® anywhere!
My answer is often the same:
"What part of the market?"
"Do you want to know about single family homes, condos, farm land in the Yukon?" "Where? North Van, West Van, Downtown?"
I guess the reason this isn't the best question is because it leaves so many unanswered questions.
Here's a great example of how generalising this response can give you the wrong impression. (I'm big into stats but the stats have to be specific!)
The B.C. Real Estate Association releases stats every month. April 2024 saw an increase in listings of 1.5% over last April. The average price for a home in B.C. rose too, hitting the $1 million mark, compared to last April's average price of $992,440. In the Greater Vancouver area, the average price for a home was a little over $1.3 million last month, while in Victoria it was about $983,000.
Ok, let's drill this down; if we look at BC on the whole we're seeing an increase in listings and prices.
But those numbers don't tell us much about the part of the market that questioners are asking about.
People want to know what the value of their own real estate is or what the chances they can buy something is. They don't care that the entire province of BC saw a slight bump in home prices (mostly due to one, large city...nudge nudge. ;)
Here is it: in North Van in April 2023 there were 126 listings and 78 sales. In April 2024 there were 232 listings and 76 sales. These are the stats that mean something. When you look at that you can see that we have a heck of a lot of inventory on the market right now compared to last year but we're selling a lower ratio than last year.
What does this mean?
I'm not an economist or pundit but, from my experience and from what I've read, this means that buyers are waiting but sellers are anticipating.
There has been talk of a rate reduction in June. Buyers seem to be waiting for that to happen before pulling the trigger on their next purchase but, I think that's a mistake. If they wait and the rates drop there's a chance there will be a lot of competition for the current homes on the market which will drive up prices.
My advice to buyers would be to talk to your mortgage broker then buy now or before the rate drop. Definitely sit down with a mortgage broker and a Realtor® (I know a great one ;) and talk strategy. There may be some great deals to be had in this moment before things may get crazy.
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