June 2010 Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver MLS Statistics

Vancouver Real Estate Statistics for June 2010

Monthly Vancouver Real Estate MLS Statistics - June 2010

Signs of stability returning to the Vancouver Real Estate Market

For the first time in a few months, I actually see some positive signals in the most recent (June 2010) month’s Vancouver real estate statistics. Since February, just about every possible measurement had been turning to the negative. In fact, it became so obvious that the market was declining that the mainstream media even took notice.

The month of May 2010 in Vancouver real estate was the first obviously bad month. However, there seem to be some signs in June 2010 that our market may be stabilizing rather than declining. East Vancouver numbers look particularly strong.

There were 1873 new listings in June 2010. This is a decline of -18.07% from May 2010 and a rise of nearly 12% over June 2009. This is one of the most promising signals as it appears that the number of new listings coming onto the market is really slowing down (reducing supply).

After seeing a rapid drop in sales from April to May 2010, June 2010 saw a very small increase (+0.84%) to 958. This is a -32.01% decline over June 2009 (the second strongest selling June on record).

Meanwhile, active listings held relatively flat for the first time this year. Since January we have almost seen the number of active listings double in the Vancouver real estate market. The 5254 active listings in June 2010 were a +0.75% increase over May 2010 and a whopping +49.56% increase over June 2009.

Prices dropped across the board. Considering we have been seeing increased supply and reduced demand for some time, this doesn’t come as a surprise. The detached benchmark sat at $1,161,178 (-4.66% vs May 2010 and +17.49% vs June 2009), the attached benchmark was $639,809 (-1.31% vs May 2010 and +11.03% vs June 2009) and the apartment benchmark was $417,886 (-1.53% vs May 2010 and +8.3% vs June 2009).

Prices have capitulated to some degree, finally coming in line with the reality of increased supply and reduced demand. However, there are signs in the month of June that supply has stabilized and new listings are no longer flooding the market. This, combined with steadying demand leads me to believe that the Vancouver real estate market is beginning to stabilize.

The Vancouver Real Estate Board’s official line

“Activity in June marked a healthy balance between the near record setting pace of June 2009 and the considerably slower activity witnessed in June 2008, a period of recession as we all know,” Jake Moldowan, REBGV president said.

“We didn’t experience any record-breaking activity in June, but we did see a stable summer market,” Moldowan said. “The number of new listings coming on the market is not as dramatic as we saw over the previous three months and demand remains at a healthy level for this traditionally quieter time of year.”

“There has been less upward pressure on prices in our market the last few months, which has allowed prices to ease back from the record high numbers seen in April,” Moldowan said.

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