March 2010 Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver MLS Statistics

Vancouver Real Estate Statistics for March 2010

Monthly Vancouver Real Estate MLS Statistics - March 2010

Balance returns to the Vancouver Real Estate Market

After seeing whopping price increases in the month of February, the market appears to have moderated all-around. Prices generally continued their upward trajectory, but with big jumps in inventory (new listings) and smaller increases in sales the upward pressure on prices eased.

For the city of Vancouver, the 2383 new listings for March 2010 were the highest number of new listings in 22 months. That takes us all of the way back to May 2008 when the Vancouver real estate market stalled and began it’s tumble through 2008.

While new listings boom, sales have not been far behind. There were 994 sales in March 2010 and that was 21% higher than February 2010 and 31% higher than March 2009. However, the rise in new listings is outpacing that of sales and so that has resulted in a significant drop in the Sell/List ratio to 42% (from 60% the month before).

Likewise, we saw Active Listings (the total number of listings on the market at month’s end) increase nearly 26% from February through to March 2010 (from 3111 to 3919). Despite the swelling of Active Listings we only saw a slight increase in Month’s Supply to 3.83 (from 3.72) because of the rise is Sales.

As for prices, the average home in Greater Vancouver rose in value 20.3% to $584,435 from $485,845 the year before. For the city of Vancouver, the average home has risen in value by 25.41% in those same 12 months.

Many sellers held off on listing their properties until after the Olympics. The rapid rise in home values has motivated many of those home owners to test the market. Buyers are active in the market but so far appear to be less motivated to move quickly (as they had been late in 2009) with so much choice.

The Vancouver Real Estate Board’s official line

“The total number of homes listed for sale on our MLS is at its highest level in 10 months, which translates into more options and variety for those looking to buy during the traditionally busy spring period,” Jake Moldowan, REBGV president-elect said.

“With a sales-to-listing ratio of 23 per cent, we see a healthy balance between buyer deman and seller supply in the marketplace,” Moldowan added.

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