Karl and I have just released our 2011 market review.

In summary, 2011 was a slightly weaker year for real estate sales in the Greater Victoria area.  Although our market would still be considered to be very stable, prices and volume were down over the year before in most segments.  For example, single family home prices slipped by 2.6%, with the number of houses sold off by 5.2%.  Most forecasts for 2012 include a modest recovery, with generally stable conditions.  Both CMHC and the Canadian Real Estate Assocation expect prices and volume to grow very slightly.  The recent announcement by several banks of increasing competitive mortgage rates could help to spur sales further.

If you would like your own full copy of this report, just send us a message with your email and we would be happy to send it along.  If you are already connected with us, keep an eye on your mailbox - it will be arriving soon!

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As you may have heard, the Bank of Canada has left its rate unchanged for at least another couple of months.  This means that rates variable interest mortgages should remain unchanged.

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Now that we are half way through January we can see that home buyers and sellers are off to fast start.  At this point, it is not yet showing up in the number of properties sold, but we can definitely see it in the number of phone calls, new buyers starting to shop, and in web traffic.  For example, visits to our website, www.PreferredHomes.ca, have more than doubled since the beginning of the month and are running higher than any month in the last quarter.  Web traffic generally precedes “feet on the street” activity so the market could be in for a busy spring.

We spent the weekend at one of the developments that we represent, www.HomesAtHazelwood.ca and it was apparent there, as well, that many new buyers are getting into the market.  Hazelwood offers very affordable single family homes so most of the clients are first time buyers, or just moving up from a condo.  When we asked them why they were planning a purchase it was often because of the record low mortgage rates that were announced last week.  If you haven’t heard, the bank of Montreal, and others, are now offering fixed rate mortgages as low as 2.99%.  That’s a pretty amazing rate!

If we can be excused a small plug, we would like to invite you to visit us this weekend at our new luxury town home development grand opening.  We’ll be open this weekend from noon to 4pm and we can be found at 4045 Rainbow Road.  Just follow the signs.  More info can be found at www.RainbowHill.ca.  We will have CFAX onsite and will have a draw for a free iPad.  We hope that you can stop by and say hi.

Over the last 30 days, 138 single family houses were sold, up by 3 houses from last week.  The median price is up $4,600 to $544,500. The average house was on the market for 65 days.

In the same time period, 81 condos were sold, up by 4 condos from last week.  The median price is down $29,000 to $250,000. The average condo was on the market for 69 days. I would add a note of caution here. I don’t believe for a second that condos have dropped by over 10% in value.  This is most likely a result of very few sales skewing the results.  Time will tell!

There are now 1,485 houses for sale, up by 45 from last week.  Condo inventory has risen by 18 to 837 suites.

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