It's spring, the height of house-hunting season.
Logic tells sellers to list their properties, and that's just what they're doing-to the point that the MLS® is warning realtors that new listings could take longer to process because of high volume.
April's 6,056 new listings across Greater Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»were 3.6 per cent higher than last April and 6.7 per cent above the 10-year average for April, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»(REBGV).
(For the sake of curiosity, new listings in April 2008-the beginning of the last big correction in the Greater Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»real estate market-jumped to 7,010. That was a 25.6 per cent increase over April 2007 and 24 per cent above the current 10-year average. No comparison.)
Meanwhile, sales declined last month. At 2,799, Greater Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»home sales hit an 11-year low, dropping to 16.9 per cent below the 10-year average for April.
(Again, for comparison, April 2008 saw 3,218 sales, which was 4.5 per cent below the current 10year April average. So back in 2008, while listings took a sudden jump, home sales were still fairly brisk.)
Comparing Februarythrough-April home sales to the same period last year, detached homes were down 25.9 per cent, attached homes were down 20.6 per cent and apartments were down 15.6 per cent.
The biggest drops in home sales of all types were seen in three of the four most expensive areas in Greater Vancouver: Richmond, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»West and West Vancouver. (North Vancouver, the third most expensive area saw smaller declines.) Burnaby and Delta also experienced substantial drops in sales.
Even Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»East- the hot area according to word on the street-saw 26.3 per cent fewer detached home sales over the last three months compared to the same period last year. There must be some hot pockets there. We keep hearing stories of bidding wars. But overall, the detached house market is cooling there, too, while apartment sales actually increased by 3.2 per cent.
For details, check the Listing & Sales Activity Summary of REBGV's latest report at rebgv.org.
The sales-to-active-listings ratio is still in balanced territory at 17 per cent, says REBGV president Eugen Klein.
Despite slow sales and higher inventory, the benchmark prices for homes continued creeping upwards in April. The overall benchmark price for all housing types in Greater Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»rose by 0.7 per cent over March, and 3.7 per cent over April 2011.
Compare that chart to the highlighted part of the Residential Average Sale Prices chart.
The average price has dropped sharply since January. That reflects the nature of the two different measurements. Average prices are just that, and they can be badly skewed by sales of a lot of high-priced properties. Sales at the high end have slowed considerably, so there are fewer big numbers affecting the average price this Spring.
Benchmark prices reflect the sold price of a typical home for each area and each type of home. They are less likely to be distorted by atypical home types and prices. It'll be interesting to see if next month's benchmark prices begin to reflect what looks like a sodden spring for home sales.
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