Here are the real estate statistics for Vancouver West (Westside) and Vancouver East for the month of August 2008. These statistics are compiled graphically by my office, Royal LePage Westside every month.

The statistics are broken into segments for East and West sides of Vancouver. You’ll find graphs for the median selling price, listing supply, sales demand, and price history.

Vancouver West Real Estate Statisctics - August 2008

Vancouver East Real Estate Statistics - August 2008

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) recently released the statistics package for August 2008. The headline tells the story, “Summer lull sees properties stay on market”. We saw sales down 53.7% % (1,568 vs 3,384) and new listings also fell 1.7% (4,331 vs 4,408).

We are also continuing to see a decline in the benchmark housing prices on a month-to-month basis. Detached properties in Greater Vancouver declined 4.3% since May 2008 and now sit at $737,985. The biggest drop this past month (in my market of Vancouver East and West) was in the Vancouver West Attached properties. These fell -4.85% to $696,507 from July to August 2008. The highlight was Attached properties in Vancouver East rising +4.87% to $530,806.

“In August, properties on average remained on the market longer than we’ve seen in recent years,” REBGV president, Dave Watt said. “As the market heads into the traditionally more active fall season, we have begun to see property listings recede and prices moderate.”

The month of August is traditionally one of the slowest periods of the Vancouver real estate market. It appears that our slow market exacerbated this annual trend. We should see the market begin to pick up coming into the busier Fall season.

While the numbers looked stronger for Vancouver East last month, they have reversed this month. Vancouver West had a much stronger month relatively speaking. Here are some specific numbers for the month of August 2008. The numbers in brackets indicate the month-to-month change for that statistic:

Vancouver West
Sales: 317 (-27.79%)
Listings: 874 (-32.77%)
Sell/List Ratio: 36.27% (+2.50)
Months Supply: 11.52 (+33.97%)
Active Listings: 3651 (-3.26%)
Detached Benchmark: $1,371,663 (-1.36%)
Attached Benchmark: $696,507 (-4.86%)
Apartment Benchmark: $468,812 (-2.75%)

Vancouver East
Sales: 178 (-31.01%)
Listings: 537 (-18.26%)
Sell/List Ratio: 33.15% (-6.12)
Months Supply: 10.70 (+50.31%)
Active Listings: 1904 (+3.70%)
Detached Benchmark: $664,709 (-1.48%)
Attached Benchmark: $530,806 (+4.87%)
Apartment Benchmark: $325,636 (-0.21%)

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

Here are the weekly statistics for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver in the week of August 25th 2008 – August 31st, 2008 for my market area of Vancouver East and Vancouver West.

Another week of holidays. Not for me, but for just about everyone else in the real estate world. I believe that as a result we saw a very weak week in the real estate market (slower even than last week).

After a strong decline in new listings last week, we saw a more gradual rise (+6.90%) this week. Sales were down quite significantly (-15.04%). The Sell/List ratio took a beating as a result (-8.55%) and sits at 33.14% for the week.

I suspect that what we are seeing in these numbers is a bit of a setup for a busier September. Buyers disappeared for the last few weeks on holidays while we started to see a few listings get listed early for the upcoming Fall season.

Still keeping an eye on the average days on market for sales, we saw it increase this past week up to 47.85 DOM (+5.41). This number has been bouncing around a fair amount lately. If the Fall season starts to pick up (and new listings are being priced more inline with market realities), then we should see this number begin to decline.

Probably the only bright spot in the week was that active listings continued to drop. Once again, it wasn’t a significant move (-0.29%) but it’s a positive direction. As I stated in previous weeks, I suspect that this number should continue to decline as stale listings continue to be removed from the peak we saw in July.

New Listings: 341 (+6.90%)
Avg List Price: $862,045 (+5.01%)
New Detached: 105 (+5.00%)
New Attached: 236 (+7.76%)

Sales: 113 (-15.04%)
Avg Sale List Price: $739,168 (+3.95%)
Avg Sale Sell Price: $709,550 (+4.61%)
Avg Difference: 4.17% (-0.66)
Avg DOM for Sale: 47.85 (+5.41)

Sell/List Ratio: 33.14% (-8.55)

Price Changes: 242 (+0.41%)
Avg New List Price: $819,144 (-9.86%)
Avg Old List Price: $860,432 (-9.00%)
Avg Difference: -5.05 (+0.99)
Avg DOM for Price Change: 71.55 (+12.53)

Active Listings: 5493 (-0.29%)

 Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

Here are the weekly statistics for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver in the week of August 18th 2008 – August 24th, 2008 for my market area of Vancouver East and Vancouver West.

Firmly back from holidays, it appears that everyone else has left. The end of August is typically one of the slower periods for real estate and I think that’s reflected in this week’s stats.

All in all, it was a positive week. New listings were down quite significantly (-17.36%), although I expect we might see this number rise again come the beginning of September. Sales were down, but not significantly (-6.99%). The result is that we saw the Sell/List ratio increase (+4.90) to 41.69% and find itself back into balanced market territory.

We are keeping our eyes on the average days on market for sales, after the number spiked the last couple weeks. This week we saw the number drop significantly back down to 42.44 DOM (-7.90).

Active listings also dropped this week. This wasn’t a significant move (-1.08%) down to 5509 active listings. I was hoping to see more listings drop off by now, but we’ll also keep an eye on this number in the coming weeks.

New Listings: 319 (-17.36%)
Avg List Price: $820,953 (-3.12%)
New Detached: 100 (-23.08%)
New Attached: 219 (-14.45%)

Sales: 133 (-6.99%)
Avg Sale List Price: $711,082 (+9.97%)
Avg Sale Sell Price: $678,290 (+7.69%)
Avg Difference: 4.83% (+2.18)
Avg DOM for Sale: 42.44 (-7.90)

Sell/List Ratio: 41.69% (+4.65)

Price Changes: 241 (-6.59%)
Avg New List Price: $908,729 (-1.45%)
Avg Old List Price: $945,564 (-3.20%)
Avg Difference: -4.05 (-1.88)
Avg DOM for Price Change: 59.02 (-2.56)

Active Listings: 5509 (-1.08%)

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

Here are the weekly statistics for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver in the week of August 11th 2008 – August 17th, 2008 for my market area of Vancouver East and Vancouver West.

I was away for a couple of weeks on holiday (cycling up the Sunshine Coast and relaxing at a friend’s cabin on Mayne Island). While my holiday was excellent, I was remiss in keeping my blog updated during my absence. As a result, we have missed one week of data (I cannot retrieve data from the MLS system greater than 14 days old). So, this weeks data is being compared to the data of two weeks ago.

Listings were up modestly (+7.22%) while sales rose more significantly (+11.72%). This drove the Sell/List Ratio up to 37.05%. A positive sign, but the number is still within buyer’s territory.

I mentioned last time that we should be keeping an eye on the average days on market for sales. It had been bumped up significantly that week. We did see a decline this week, but not as significant as I expected (50.34 down by -0.67). There was one tri-plex that took 474 days to sell that kept this number inflated.

Active listings moved upwards once again. I mentioned last time that there was a slight drop in active listings. Unfortunately, this trend did not continue as we saw it rise by 2.69% to 5569.

New Listings: 386 (+7.22%)
Avg List Price: $847,420 (-5.08%)
New Detached: 130 (+4.00%)
New Attached: 256 (+9.40%)

Sales: 143 (11.72%)
Avg Sale List Price: $646,612 (-8.72%)
Avg Sale Sell Price: $629,865 (-6.61%)
Avg Difference: -2.66% (-2.38)
Avg DOM for Sale: 50.34 (+0.67)

Sell/List Ratio: 37.05% (+1.49)

Price Changes: 258 (-1.53%)
Avg New List Price: $922,081 (+1.80%)
Avg Old List Price: $976,798 (+1.74%)
Avg Difference: -5.93% (-0.07)
Avg DOM for Price Change: 61.58 (+0.85)

Active Listings: 5569 (+2.69%)

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

Here are the real estate statistics for Vancouver West (Westside) and Vancouver East for the month of July 2008. These statistics are compiled graphically by my office, Royal LePage Westside every month.

The statistics are broken into segments for East and West sides of Vancouver. You’ll find graphs for the median selling price, listing supply, sales demand, and price history.

Vancouver West Real Estate Statisctics - July 2008

Vancouver East Real Estate Statistics - July 2008

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) released the statistics package for July 2008 yesterday. The headline reads, “Month-over-month housing prices retreat from record highs”. The primary highlights are that sales are down 43.9 % (2,174 vs 3,873) and listings rose once more 24% (6,104 vs 4,924).

The big headline statistic is that housing prices are on the decline on a month-to-month basis. This won’t be new news to my readers, as I actually reported that some areas were seeing month-to-month declines in the past couple of months. Detached properties in Greater Vancouver declined 2.3%, attached were down 1% and apartment properties were down 2% from June to July, 2008. The overall benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver declined 2.1% month over month, from $568,411 to $556,605.

“We’re seeing more price reductions in properties listed on the market, which is having a levelling impact on the housing price increases experienced at the end of last year and into the first quarter of 2008, “said REBGV president, Dave Watt. “There was a slight decline in the total active listings on the market in July compared to June, which is a welcomed departure from recent trends.”

Over the next few months, I believe that we’ll continue to see a decline in sales in the coming months. New listings will likely remain relatively flat or decline. Prices will likely continue to trend lower into the fall. As for the active listings, I think that this number will slow significantly and maybe even decline off of the highs that we saw in late spring and early summer.

Active listings should slow because I believe we’ll start to see a large number of listings taken off the market. Many of the excess listings will expire, or sellers seeing little movement on their property will decide to cancel their listings in hopes of selling in a stronger market.

As you can see from the numbers below, the statistics for Vancouver East are showing a little more strength than those for Vancouver West. Here are some further numbers from the month of July 2008. The numbers in brackets indicate the month-to-month change for that statistic:

Vancouver West
Sales: 439 (-11.85%)
Listings: 1300 (-6.54%)
Sell/List Ratio: 35.9% (-3.1)
Months Supply: 7.35
Active Listings: 3774 (+3.11%)

Vancouver East
Sales: 258 (-4.44%)
Listings: 657 (-5.47%)
Sell/List Ratio: 38.9% (-1.1)
Months Supply: 6.54
Active Listings: 1836 (+4.02%)

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

Here are the weekly statistics for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver in the week of July 27th 2008 – August 2nd, 2008 for my market area of Vancouver East and Vancouver West.

I suspect that what we are beginning to see is the seasonally slower summer period. Once again, listings are down (by another -8.63% this week). Sales are also down this week by -18.99%. This brings the sales/list ratio down to 35.56% and back into the Buyer’s Market territory.

One interesting number this week is the average days on market for sales. It was bumped way up to 51.01 this week. I believe that this was a bit of an anomaly for the week. There were a number of sales in one new building on the westside that were all well over 200 days and I believe that this skewed the numbers. However, it’s something to keep an eye on.

Lastly, active listings dropped this past week (-1.85%). Clearly, that was not because of an increase in sales versus new listings…but it’s a move in the right direction. We’ll keep our eyes on this to see if it’s a continuing trend.

New Listings: 359 (-8.63%)
Avg List Price: $895,308 (5.54%)
New Detached: 125 (-2.34%)
New Attached: 234 (-12.03%)

Sales: 128 (-18.99%)
Avg Sale List Price: $708,422 (-1.53%)
Avg Sale Sell Price: $674,427 (-2.31%)
Avg Difference: 5.04% (+0.83)
Avg DOM for Sale: 51.01 (+12.74 days)

Sell/List Ratio: 35.56 (+4.55)

Price Changes: 261 (-9.66%)
Avg New List Price: $905,768 (+10.25%)
Avg Old List Price: $$960,108 (+12.08%)
Avg Difference: -6.00% (-1.73)
Avg DOM for Price Change: 60.73 (+0.95 days)

Active Listings: 5423 (-1.85%)

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

Here are the weekly statistics for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver in the week of July 20th 2008 – 26th, 2008 for my market area of Vancouver East and Vancouver West.

Is this really what a buyers market looks like? What I am seeing is still fairly fast sales (although that number appears to bump up and down a fair amount from week to week) at 38.27 days on average. There was a recent week with a significant bump in listings, but overall the trend has been downward of late (this week, down another 16.5%). Sales are remaining relatively constant right now (up 2.6% last week).

The sell/list ratio was up again this past week (up to 40.1%). Back into balanced territory. Lastly, the active listings were relatively stable this past week at 5525 (up 0.13%).

New Listings: 394 (-16.5%)
Avg List Price: $845,919 (5.58%)
New Detached: 128 (-24.22%)
New Attached: 266 (-12.78%)

Sales: 158 (+2.6%)
Avg Sale List Price: $719,421 (+12.49%)
Avg Sale Sell Price: $690,362 (+10.52%)
Avg Difference: 4.21% (+1.83)
Avg DOM for Sale: 38.27 (+4.72 days)

Sell/List Ratio: 40.1% (+6.55)

Price Changes: 290 (+4.32%)
Avg New List Price: $821,523 (+3.83%)
Avg Old List Price: $856,627 (+3.73%)
Avg Difference: -4.27% (-0.10)
Avg DOM for Price Change: 59.78 (+2.28 days)

Active Listings: 5525 (+o.13%)

 Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

I recently finished uploading another new listing of mine at King Edward Village, 407 4078 Knight St, Vancouver BC.

This peaceful and cool one bedroom and den (plus extra office area) faces east towards the tranquil inner courtyard and morning sun. Own one of the best layouts in the complex. No rental restrictions. Similar suites are renting $1,300 unfurnished and $1,700 furnished. Granite counters, stainless steel appliances and Berber carpet are just some of the high quality finishing touches.

OPEN HOUSE - 2:00pm - 4:00pm Saturday, August 2nd and Sunday, August 3rd

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside