Well wasn’t that an interesting year!
We set records for number of sales. We set records for highest prices.
And just when it looked like the market had hit its peak, the government surprised everybody with the 15% Foreign Buyers’ Tax (which had an impact much wider than merely on foreign buyers). Then the banks tightened qualifying requirements for mortgages.
So now only the really motivated buyers and sellers are striking deals; the rest are temporarily on the sidelines waiting to see where the market goes – and that’s the big question!
This is typically the quiet part of the year for real estate anyway. Now we are waiting to see what the mood will be in February when a typical cycle would see activity pick up again. Many forecasters, including me, are expecting things to get back to near-normal (whatever that is!) by mid-next-year at the latest.
And that’s a forecast based on hard numbers: growing population, expanding economy, provincial election year (bonus economic goodies from the government), continued low interest rates. We might even expect to see an extra burst of activity due to a few months’ pent-up demand following this slowdown.
You can call me anytime for an up-to-the-minute picture of the market and trends.
North Shore Real Estate Market Trends
October Statistics
Benchmark Prices of a “typical” property;
Source: Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
As I’m sure you have read in the news, the number of sales of all types of housing (houses, apartments, and townhouses) was significantly lower this October than the same month a year ago.
As the graph here shows, this trend is most pronounced for houses – which in North Vancouver have also seen the number of listings rise.
Benchmark Prices are up substantially compared to a year ago, but, not shown on this one-year graph, have softened a bit since September (down about 4.5% for houses in West Van and less than 0.5% in North Van). Call me for details.