Vancouver Real Estate Prices Slide, With Typical Home Dropping $7,600 Last Month

Greater Vancouver real estate is still adjusting to the pandemic, but buyers seem to be more deterred than sellers. Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) data shows the price of a typical home made a significant monthly decline in May. Inventory fell from last year’s levels, but didn’t drop nearly as much as sales did.

Great Vancouver Real Estate Prices Dropped $7,600 Last Month

Greater Vancouver real estate prices are up from the same month last year, but not much else. REBGV reported the benchmark price for a home reached $1,028,400 in May, up 2.9% from last year. In the City, Vancouver East’s composite benchmark reached $1,089,000, up 3.5% from last year. Pricey Vancouver West saw the benchmark reach $1,283,000, up 4.2% from last year. Looking at the benchmark price chart, you may have noticed this isn’t the first impression.

Greater Vancouver Composite Benchmark Price

The price of a typical home across Greater Vancouver, in Canadian dollars.

Source: REBGV, Better Dwelling.

The year-over-year rate of growth is higher than last month, but prices are down using monthly or peak numbers. The 2.9% annual increase for May is higher than it was in May 2019. However, prices are down 0.73% from April 2020 – about $7,600 lower over the span of a month. Prices are also down 6.88% from peak, whereas they were down just 6.19% from the month before. A lot of odd dynamics created by the monthly price change falling almost twice as fast as last year, but the takeaway is prices are lower from peak, and last month.

Greater Vancouver Composite Benchmark Price Change

The annual percent change of a typical home across Greater Vancouver.

Source: REBGV, Better Dwelling.

Greater Vancouver Home Sales Fall Over 43%

Greater Vancouver real estate sales slipped, although this was largely expected due to the pandemic. There were 1,485 home sales in May, down 33.9% from a month before. This represents a decline of 43.7% when compared to the same month last year. Once again, the drop in sales was expected due to the pandemic. However, sales coming in 54% lower than the 10-year average for the month is a tough pill to swallow regardless.

Greater Vancouver Composite Sales Vs. Listings

The number of homes sold vs total inventory in Greater Vancouver.

Source: REBGV, Better Dwelling.

Greater Vancouver Home Inventory Fell, But Not As Much As Sales

New listings for Greater Vancouver homes didn’t fall quite as much as sales. REBGV saw 3,684 new listings in May, up 59.3% from the month before. This represents a 37.1% decline compared to the same month last year. The smaller decline for new listings helped prevent total inventory from completely drying up.

Total inventory, a.k.a. active listings, climbed higher across the board. REBGV reported 9,927 active listings in May, up 5.7% from a month before. This represents a decline of 32.4%, when compared to the same month last year. Once again, total inventory didn’t quite fall as much as sales, which actually led to a lower ratio of sales to listings.

The sales to listings ratio (SALR) slid from last year. The SALR fell to 15% in May, down from 18% during the same month last year. Generally, analysts believe prices fall when the ratio drops below 12%. Prices are expected to rise when the SALR is above 20%, and considered balanced between 12% and 20%. The market is still in balanced territory, but a little closer to seeing prices fall, compared to last year.

The pandemic is slowing things down, but buyers appear to be more deterred than sellers at this point. Price growth did still accelerate on an annual basis, which is considered a bullish indicator. However, the mechanics are somewhat broken, considering prices fell on both the month and from peak.

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5 Comments

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  • Reply
    Kit 5 years ago

    If that breaks through the $990,000 point, she’s done. Funny how obvious the downturn is on a chart, but not just hearing the numbers

  • Reply
    Fazid 5 years ago

    So supply and demand does have an impact? Imagine how affordable prices would be if there wasn’t a a barrier to putting new buildings up.

  • Reply
    Karen Wilson 5 years ago

    Thank you for showing the actual numbers. Todays headlines were either home sales increased, or home sales fell, depending on how the author was feeling.

    “Home sales in Vancouver rose nearly 36 percent in May as housing market also perked up in Surrey”

    https://www.straight.com/news/home-sales-in-vancouver-rose-nearly-36-percent-in-may-as-housing-market-also-perked-up-in

    “Metro Vancouver homes sales fall 44 per cent in May, but prices are high as ever”

    https://ckpgtoday.ca/2020/06/02/metro-vancouver-homes-sales-fall-44-per-cent-in-may-but-prices-are-high-as-ever/

    • Reply
      David Kemper 5 years ago

      Lol. Sales always rise from April to May, with a few exceptions. What a dumb headline.

      It’s prices that make a difference from one month to the next, since you can’t seasonally adjust the value of an asset.

  • Reply
    Manoj 5 years ago

    The figures quoted by the RE boards are all manufactured to create an illusion of house price growth and geared towards the benefits of the Sellers and the commissions of the realtors.

    Benchmark pricing is a flawed metric and it is lagging by 8 months or more!

    You can’t compare house prices of houses which are totally different in terms of their size, age, quality etc. You can only do that in a sale of a Condo tower or Townhome complex sales in one building, where the units are almost 90% similar. Not for Vancouver housing market in general.

    Don’t use any of the statistics in the mainstream media and press. Forcasting house prices is a mugs game. It simply can’t be done. Just like the weather, there are so many variables involved!

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