EAST VANCOUVER REAL ESTATE MARKET UPDATE BLOG – NOVEMBER 2016
Hello WeLoveEastVan.com readers! It’s November, which means we’ve already started playing Christmas music in the office and are sending out invitations to our client Christmas party soon. Thanks to all the recent changes to mortgage financing and the Foreign Buyer’s tax, we’re spending a lot of time chatting about the current market, but in general, it’s business as usual.
Overall, the sales to active ratio is down across East Van, putting us in a Balanced Seller’s Market for Condos and Townhouses, and a Buyer’s Market for Houses. What does this mean? To us agents, it means it’s a “normal” market where properties are selling, just not in the record time and record (increasing) prices we saw this past year. I’ve seen a few multiple offer situations recently, though they’re few and far between these days. Prices are down, more so for detached houses than condos, but overall, the average price now is lower than the average prices we saw at the peak of the market. Keep in mind that prices jumped considerably in the last 2 years that a slight decline in prices now isn’t indicative of a crashing market. The days of prices increasing every week are over, which is nice for Buyers, and not a bad thing for Sellers given the previous increase.
What we have to remind Seller’s right now is that the price their neighbours received for their property a few months ago, wasn’t necessarily indicative of market value. For example, say your neighbours listed their property for $800,000 earlier this year. After the weekend Open Houses, your neighbours received 6 offers. Two of the offers were at $800,000, one offer was at $815,000, one offer was at $831,000, one offer was at $850,000 and the last offer was at $875,000. This situation happened often in the Spring (though not always), where is seemed that the winning bid was quite a bit more than the average of the rest of the offers. Most Buyers were in a similar price range, indicating that the actual market value of the unit is quite a bit lower than the sales price. Now, we’re seeing Seller’s reach for that $875,000 price rather than something more in line with the market. With a number of Buyers deciding to take a step back from the buying right now, we’re not seeing the interest levels high enough to get the peak price, and so lucky Buyers can negotiate the price down to something a little more reasonable. Not every Seller is interested in negotiating, which is why we’re seeing a lot of cancelled listings. So if you’re interested in buying property, talk to us! We can give you the details on value, past sales, future appreciation, etc. I know I speak for everyone on the WeLoveEastVan.com Real Estate team when I say that we love negotiation, so we’re happy to fight for your case.
For Seller’s who are worried about selling in this market: Consider the amount of profit you’ve made since you purchased – if you bought more than a year or two ago, you’ve likely done quite well. Also, if you’re buying and selling in the same market, the slight loss you may be taking compared to “peak” price is offset by the negotiation you can do on your next purchase. This is the type of market that makes it ideal to move up a rung on the property ladder since you can get a better deal on something more expensive.
So Buyers, if you still qualify for a good mortgage, keep looking! We might see some deals in the next few months, and only the prepared Buyers will be able to take advantage. Make some time to sit down for a coffee with us, it’s never to early to start preparing, and it’ll make the time you spend viewing property online a lot more intriguing.Let’s see what the numbers say.. (Green is Detached Houses, Blue is Townhouses, Orange is Condos)
For our specific updates on each market, check out our blogs below..
East Vancouver Condo Market Update
East Vancouver Townhouse and Half Duplex Market Update
East Vancouver Detached House Market Update
Our Custom MLS System is THE best way of staying on top of the market (useful for both Buyers and Sellers) and it means that we’re only an email or phone call away from more information on that great new listing: Custom MLS Search).
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