Vancouver Real Estate Statistics - July 2017

Months of Inventory (MOI) rose to 6.25 months for detached homes in January in Vancouver's Westside.

MOI was 2.17 and 1.47 months for attached homes and apartments respectively. While MOI has been in sellers' market territory for the past year for apartments and attached homes, detached homes have been mostly in a balanced market range over the past 12 months.

The Active Listings chart helps explain what has been happening.  While apartment and attached home active listing volumes have been well below normal levels, detached homes have remained within typical volumes compared to the past decade. 

With the exception of the autumn of 2016, sales volumes have been fairly routine since last spring.

House prices saw a drop in the winter but have mostly rebounded as indicated in both the Average Sale Prices chart and the Real Estate Board's HPI chart. 
 

The effect of rising prices in the apartment market while the detached market has slowed is that the expanding difference per sq.ft between apartments and houses has begun to narrow.  In June 2016 the median price per sq.ft for houses was $1254 and apartments was $875; a difference of $379/sq.ft.  In June 2017 the spread has shrunk to only $202/sq.ft.    

Anecdotally, the fabulous weather we have been enjoying after a tough winter and spring appear to be slowing the market a little as everyone scrambles to enjoy some vacation.  Looking forward, I expect we will see the apartment market continue to be strong while active listing volumes remain so low.

*Remember that Months of Inventory (MOI) is a measure derived from the number of active listings during a given month divided by the number of sales that month. It indicates the theoretical length of time it would take to sell all of the properties on the market if nothing changed. Historically, 0-5 months of inventory has generally implied upward price pressure ("Seller's Market") for the ensuing six months, 5-8 months ("Balanced Market") of inventory meant a flat market with respect to pricing and over 8 months of inventory ("Buyer's Market") has, for the most part, precipitated downward price pressure.