Housing supply still outpacing demand in Vancouver market as sales increase

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says the region continues to see an increase in newly listed properties, but sales still lag behind long-term trends.

The board says October home sales totalled 1,996, a 3.7 per cent increase from the 1,924 sales recorded the same month last year. But the total was 29.5 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average of 2,832 for October.

There were 4,664 new listings of detached, attached and apartment properties last month, a 15.4 per cent increase from a year earlier, as new listings were 4.8 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average.

The composite benchmark home price in October for Metro Vancouver was $1,196,500, a 4.4 per cent increase from October 2022 and a 0.6 per cent decrease from September 2023.

Andrew Lis, the board’s director of economics and data analytics, says there appears to be a continuation of sellers’ renewed interest to participate in the market, but this is being counterbalanced by a lack of demand from buyers amid high borrowing costs.

He says the “silver lining” for buyers is that price increases have levelled off thanks to more balanced market conditions.

Meanwhile, The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, which includes Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, and Mission, says both new listings and sales fell again in October, with the board blaming elevated interest rates.

The board says the region saw 970 “transactions” in October — a drop of more than 10 per cent from last month, and the “fourth consecutive decrease since the 12-month high of 1,935 sales recorded in June.”

The benchmark price for a single-family home in that region is now $1.5 million, a drop of 1.5 per cent compared to September, but an overall increase of almost five percent year-over-year.