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