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

Where do you find Vancouver real estate open houses? Well, now you can track all of my upcoming open houses in one convenient online location.

 I just completed a long-awaited update to my website to include just such information. If you’d like to see the latest open houses, you can find it here:

 Vancouver Open House Schedule

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

I just finished uploading a new listing of mine at King Edward Village, 414 4028 Knight St, Vancouver BC.

THE SUITE - North facing home with sweeping views of the North Shore. The home is a spacious, open 831 sq. ft. 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, den and solarium. Lots of space for flexible use. Granite counters, stainless steel appliances, and berber carpet are just some of the high quality finishing touches. THE BUILDING - Brand new concrete construction. Have peace of mind buying into a solid building with full 2-5-10 warranty. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD - convenience. Just 10 minutes from downtown, Commercial Drive, Main Street, Save-on-Foods, TD bank and the new VPL branch downstairs.

OPEN HOUSE - 2:00pm - 4:00pm Saturday, July 26th and Sunday, July 27th

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

Here are the (LATE) weekly statistics for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver in the week of July 13th 2008 – 19th, 2008 for my market area of Vancouver East and Vancouver West.

This past week saw a significant drop in new listings (-20.48%), which is a nice change from last weeks 70.15% rise. Sales dropped ever so slightly down by 4.55%. Our sell/list ratio increased up to 33.55% back into balanced territory…while active listings kept their upward trend rising 2.68% up to 5518.

New Listings: 459 (-20.48%)
Avg List Price: $893,155 (-2.58%)
New Detached: 159 (-11.32%)
New Attached: 300 (-25.33%)

Sales: 154 (-4.55%)
Avg Sale List Price: 639,522 (-16.26%)
Avg Sale Sell Price: 624,656 (-14.53%)
Avg Difference: 2.38% (-1.55)
Avg DOM for Sale: 33.51 (-8.83 days)

Sell/List Ratio: 33.55% (+4.44)

Price Changes: 278 (25.90%)
Avg New List Price: $791,218 (-13.01%)
Avg Old List Price: $825,791 (-13.75%)
Avg Difference: -4.37% (-0.68)
Avg DOM for Price Change: 57.50 (+4.58 days)

Active Listings: 5518 (+2.68%)

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

I’m a bit late in referring to this, but I thought that it was better late than never. Last week, the Federal government announced that they were putting a halt to guaranteeing the 40-year and zero-down mortgages. They hope to avoid the type of housing crisis that we’ve seen in the US that’s been caused by their sub-prime mortgages.

Any of you that have ever spoken to me about mortgages knows that I don’t believe our two systems are comparable (US vs Canada).  In the US, their mortgage lending practices were far, far more liberal than our own. Even with the 40-year and zero-down mortgages that were introduced in recent years, our lending practices were by far more conservative.

Yes, increasing the amortization of mortgages and reducing the amount of equity a new owner must put down to own a property is not without risk. What these moves did was allow potential homeowners to stretch themselves a little further to purchase a little bit better home. I believe that most Canadians that used these products were doing so in order to take advantage of the flexibility that they allowed for, not as a means to enter into the market in the first place.

The new rules mean  that government backed mortgages will require a minimum down payment of five percent (no longer 0%), and will be restricted to a maximum amortization period of 35 years (no longer 40). The changes will take affect on October 15, 2008 so you have lots of time to still take advantage of the old ones for now.

The difference to the homeowner, with a $400,000 mortgage is that on a 35 year amortization they will be paying $81 more per month in mortgage payments than if it was a 40 year amortization.

With a cooling housing market across the country, this might not be the optimum time to make these changes. One could question the governments timing on the policy change. I don’t believe that these are significant changes that would price many people out of the market. However, the market can be fickle and who knows how this might affect market psychology.

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 6th 2008 – 12th, 2008 for my market area of Vancouver East and Vancouver West.

Once again, the weekly number are not great. There was a big spike in new listings (up 70.15% and definitely not good). Amongst the gloom, however, sales were up again. Continuing the trend that was interrupted last week sales were up 23.85%. The sell/list ratio was down to only 29.11%, definitely well into buyer’s market territory:

New Listings: 553 (+70.15%)
Avg List Price: $916,229 (+8.93%)
New Detached: 177 (+80.61%)
New Attached: 376 (+65.64%)

Sales: 161 (+23.85%)
Avg Sale List Price: $743,506 (+8.66%)
Avg Sale Sell Price: $715,402 (+7.63%)
Avg Difference: 3.93% (+0.98)
Avg DOM for Sale: 42.34 (+7.18 days)

Sell/List Ratio: 29.11% (-10.89)

Price Changes: 350 (-49.57%)
Avg New List Price: $894,180 (-5.08%)
Avg Old List Price: $939,327 (-5.15%)
Avg Difference: -5.05% (-0.07)
Avg DOM for Price Change: 52.92 (-1.94 days)

Active Listings: 5374 5184 (+3.67%)

 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 June 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 - June 2008

Vancouver East Real Estate Statistics - June 2008

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside

Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) statistics for June 2008 were released recently. The news release from REBGV is entitled “Market activity offers awaited relief for homebuyers”. In brief, we saw sales down 42.9% (2,425) compared to a year ago (4,244) and listings rose again by 18.3% (6,546) compared to a year ago (5,533).

“Although housing prices, on a year-over-year comparison, continue to show single-digit percentage increases, we are beginning to see more price reductions in properties listed on the market today,” said REBGV president, David Watt. “Homes priced at a competitive level continue to sell quickly, but it is important for people to accurately identify their home’s value when putting it on the market.”

There is no doubt about it, the numbers are continuing to show signs of weakening. I scoured through the stats, trying to find bright spots in the Vancouver East and Vancouver West markets but it was a challenge that I could not meet.

In my market of Vancouver we saw the benchmark price for detached homes (+9.5% Westside and +7.2% Eastside) and apartments (+8% Westside and +9.1% Eastside) continue to rise on a year-to-year comparison. Once again, however, we saw a drop in prices on a month-to-month basis.

The benchmark price for detached homes on the Westside rose from May to June 2008 (from $1,500,000  to $1,549,000 +3.3%) but dropped on the Eastside (from $699,000 to $662,000 -5.6%). The benchmark price for apartments eased for both the West (from $458,500 to $445,000 -3%) and Eastsides (from $321,000 to $303,500 -5.8%).

Last month, the Eastside had shown greater resiliency in the market. However, it looks as though the general trends occurring elsewher in the market have caught up with Vancouver East as well.

Here are some further numbers from the month of June 2008. The numbers in brackets indicate the month-to-month change for that statistic:

Vancouver West
Sales: 498 (-26.5%)
Listings: 1391 (-15.9%)
Sell/List Ratio: 35.9% (-3.1)
Months Supply: 7.35
Active Listings: 3660 (+10.1%)

Vancouver East
Sales: 270 (-18.1%)
Listings: 695 (-14.5%)
Sell/List Ratio: 38.9% (-1.1)
Months Supply: 6.54
Active Listings: 1765 (+11,2%)

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 June 29th 2008 – July 5th, 2008 for my market area of Vancouver East and Vancouver West.

This past week the numbers were not pretty. New listings dropped hard once again (a good sign, but likely due to the seasonally slower summer market) down by 28.62%. Sales reversed the trend of the previous few weeks and fell sharply by 41.54%. Active listings fell once again, but only very slightly down by 0.19%:

New Listings: 325 (-28.62%)
Avg List Price: $841,089 (-2.02%)
New Detached: 98 (-43.88%)
New Attached: 227 (-22.03%)

Sales: 130 (-41.54%)
Avg Sale List Price: $684,251 (-12.98%)
Avg Sale Sell Price: $664,658 (-8.11%)
Avg Difference: 2.95% (-4.64)
Avg DOM for Sale: 35.16 (-3.76 days)

Sell/List Ratio: 40.00% 44.02% (-4.02)

Price Changes: 234 (-39.74%)
Avg New List Price: $850,971 (-0.78%)
Avg Old List Price: $893,306 (-0.60%)
Avg Difference: -4.98% (-0.20)
Avg DOM for Price Change: 54.86 (-3.78 days)

Active Listings: 5184 (-0.19%)

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Westside