The numbers continue to paint an interesting picture of Victoria’s real estate market. While the natural tendency for most sellers and buyers is to hold off in this market, the opposite is actually the correct course of action. If you are considering selling your home, you need to hear that that there are a lot of frustrated buyers out there who really want to make a purchase. If you think that this sounds like the opposite of what you have heard, read on!
Let’s tackle the single family detached home market first. Yes, the volume of sales is down significantly. We would love to see higher sales volume, but I don’t believe that is in the cards for a while. So, where are the opportunities in a slow market? To put it simply, there are two types of home sellers, whether the market is hot or not. Those that will find a buyer, and those that will never, ever sell their home. Those that have no chance of selling are always overly optimistic in their pricing, do not listen to expert advice, and don’t prepare their home for sale. In a slow market like we are experiencing, there are always more of these sellers.
That leaves us with a small group of sellers who price their homes at market value, make them look great, and team up with a Realtor committed to proper marketing that makes their home stand out from the crowd. These homes are in such short supply that they are selling quite quickly. Don’t take my word for it, look at the numbers. For the last seven weeks, the prices of the homes that have sold has risen 2.2% and the number of days that it has taken for those homes to sell has dropped by 7%. Those probably aren’t the numbers you expected to see, are they? But, they are the actual, current numbers from the Victoria Real Estate Board for greater Victoria. Increasing prices and dropping days on market is our most clear indicator that buyers are having trouble finding homes to buy! Our own experience backs this up, with several of our listings in recently attracting multiple offers.
The condo market is much the same as well! Like houses, the volume of sales is very low. Prices are also relatively stable, and the days on market is dropping. Like with houses, there is a shortage of realistically priced condos on the market.
These market facts need to be a wake up call for buyers, sellers, and other Realtors. The low volume of sales that we are dealing with is likely to be around for a while so we all need to learn to live with that, and adjust our expectations and strategies. But, that does not necessarily mean that prices are going to fall. In fact, for those with open ears that listen to the facts and not just to sensationalized news reports, the news is far from bad.
If you want to learn more about the current market, and whether it is a good time for you to sell, please give us a call!
Here are the raw stats from this morning:
Over the last 30 days, 178 single family houses were sold, down by 5 houses from last week. The median price is down $3,500 to $526,500. The average house was on the market for 43 days.
In the last 30 days, 86 condos were sold, down by 9 condos from last week. The median price is down $3,250 to $256,750. The average condo was on the market for 50 days.
There are now 2,169 houses for sale, down by 143 from last week. Condo inventory has fallen by 58 to 1016 suites.
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