What’s Happening with Condos in East Van?
Good news condo Buyers, the condo market in East Van isn’t as crazy as it has been the last few months. I’ve seen some great spaces not sell in multiples after the first weekend of Open Houses, giving a Buyer the opportunity to get it at a good price and with a conditional offer. Prices have been going up significantly over the last few years that it’s nice to see prices stop increasing over the last month or two. The question now is are prices actually dropping, or are they just selling under what was a high asking price? The average says they dropped slightly, but I would like to see a few months of this trend continue before calling it a significant falling market. I don’t think we’ll see any crazy bidding wars for the time being, which will keep the prices reasonable. The sales to active ratio is still at 55%, which is still a Seller’s Market (it needs to be under 18% to be a Balanced Market).
The HPI sales price was $574,700 last month, which is a 0.5% drop from the month before, though it’s still about 20% higher than this time last year. The average price this month was $667,000 ($917/sqft) while the median price was $619,000 ($903/sqft) so expect newer condos in the most central East Van location to still be well over $600k.
The total inventory is at 264 condos (up from 237 condos at this time last year) while we saw 144 sales (down from 165 at this time last year). We saw a big increase of new listings this past month, so the increase in inventory is a mix of both existing inventory that hasn’t sold and new listings.
I speak with a lot of Buyers who have an idea that they don’t want to offer any more than the listing price, but that statement doesn’t take into account properties that are purposely listed low. I went through a situation this past month with a Buyer who managed to secure a great 1 bed + den condo in Collingwood for a great price compared to recent building sales. She paid more than the asking price, but her price was still a deal compared to recent sales in the building, it was just that the property was listed exceptionally low to generate a lot of multiple offers, but only received two.
At the end of the day, good listings and listings priced on the lower end of reasonable will still sell quickly, so be prepared when it comes to your financing and your real estate knowledge. I don’t think prices will drop (at least considerably) but I do think it will be a bit tougher to sell units in bad buildings or units that haven’t been well cared for since Buyers may have a bit more choice. So if you’re thinking about selling, put the extra effort in to make your property shine.
As always, if you want to chat real estate or have any questions about the market, or buying or selling, shoot me an email at [email protected] or give me a call at 778-387-7371.
