You probably didn’t think Vancouver real estate prices couldn’t get any crazier, but here we are. Numbers from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) show a softer detached market, but condos are making surreal jumps in prices. Generally the market saw higher prices, less listings, and even less sales – yet prices still soared. Go figure.
Prices Are 2.9% Higher Than The Month Before
The benchmark condo price made a big leap higher in June. The price in Greater Vancouver is now $600,700, a 2.9% increase from the month prior. This represents a 17.6% increase from the same time last year. While that seems steep, one area in particular stood out in the stats – West Vancouver.
Source: REBGV.
The benchmark condo price in West Vancouver reached $1,168,000 – a 5.1% increase from just one month before. To put how big of a jump that is into perspective, it’s $135,000 more than the month before. That’s about $4,500 per day, almost a month of gross pay for a family in the area. It’s kind of hard to say that prices are rising using any fundamentals at this point.
Sales Are 9.6% Lower Than Last Year
Sales are slipping across Canada, and Greater Vancouver was no exception. June saw 1,905 condo sales, a decrease of 5.92% from the month prior. This also represents a 9.6% decrease from the same time last year. Like we’ve noted before, sales tend to slip as prices get higher, since more and more people will be priced out of the market.
Source: REBGV.
Listings Are 6.42% Lower From Last Year
Listings continued to decline in the condo segment, dropping the selection for buyers. June saw 2,170 listings, a 10.8% decline from the month before. Listings seasonally drop at this time, but this is a 6.42% drop from the same time last year. The drop in inventory was less than the drop in sales, so the decline in listings shouldn’t experience all that much additional pressure to prices – although buyers didn’t agree.
No, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that listings are dropping, sales are dropping faster, and prices are making monster moves higher. Buyers are likely panic buying, with the fear that they will be locked out of the market forever. Apparently the belief that prices always go up is alive and well in Vancouver.
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Fear of missing out (FOMO) is very real, and the truth is that if one does not buy, they really could be locked out for years if not indefinitely. Those who prayed for a Toronto housing crash 10 years ago are still waiting, and even with the current slowdown, prices are nowhere close to what they were 10 years ago.
Lol this guy. Here’s the lay of the land: current prices are barely sustainable at best vs incomes, interest rates are rising like it or not, chinas capital controls are real (already killing the prc buyer segment aka the 2+m home market), mortgage rules are tightening, and the greendp are sworn in primarily based on a housing mandate that will increase income taxes, intro a 2% speculator tax, phase out the bc lib subprime loan program, and a promise of enforcement against money laudering in real estate. And thats just the short term. Long term, the demographics of the baby boomer retirement wave underway (aka the lion share of local earners who own homes) coupled with the net loss of young professionals from Vancouver (already happening) will be a major challenge to the notion that real estate always up in Vancouver that so many pundits preach. Tge market is at peak or close to. Buy now all you FOMOs. Have fun with that.
So a sharp decline with a fast recovery once happened to the market here in 2008, and because of this SINGLE EVENT we should expect things to go the same this time as well.
Amazing piece of journalism.