B.C. real estate inventory at all-time low

If you’re finding it hard to track down your dream home — even if you have the money — you’re not alone. Inventory is at an all-time low after the supply of homes on the market plummeted last month.

It was a remarkable drop of 40 per cent year over year in October, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association.

Central 1 Credit Union economist Bryan Yu isn’t surprised, given the rising demand that’s been present during the pandemic.

“Even though we do have an economy that is still recovering, we’ve seen that the number one sales flow has still remained quite robust,” Yu explained. “We are still around that 20 per cent above where we were pre-pandemic in terms of overall sales. A lot of this is the low-interest-rate environment still providing this lift, but this is also in the absence of immigration.”

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Yu says this follows the surge in demand we’ve seen during the pandemic.

“The new listings flow down from a year ago, but still, it’s been relatively in line with having normal cycles. I think the key issue here is that there’s been such strong demand, there’s been very little inventory left in the market. And again, it’s been a historical low at this point, at least going back to the 2000s.”

While sales have surged this year, the real estate association expects we’ll see that slow next year, especially if interest rates rise as expected.

“Next year, we do have this coming down close to 17 per cent for sale,” Yu said.

“This is more just the normalization. I think we’re getting back to something a little bit more pre-pandemic — still somewhat elevated. There is some headwinds here. I think the interest rate environment is absolutely going to be pricing more individuals out of the market. We’ve seen affordability erode, just due to prices over the past year, and those are rising at a substantial rate. And adding to that, of course, now it’s going to be a little bit harder, I think, for houses to get in due to an increasing interest rates.”