MONTHLY STATISTICS UPDATE FOR FEBRUARY 2022
Posted by Team Biberger on
FEBRUARY 2022 Market Update
NANAIMO, BC – February brought additional inventory to the table in the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) area. However, listings are still far below where they need to be to satisfy buyer demand.
Active listings of single-family homes were 12 per cent lower last month than the previous February but rose by 34 per cent from January 2022. VIREB’s inventory of condo apartments in February declined by 31 per cent from one year ago but increased by seven per cent from the previous month. Row/townhouse inventory dropped by 27 per cent year over year but was the same as in January (66).
By category, 360 single-family homes sold on the MLS® System in February, a 13 per cent decrease from one year ago and up by 64 per cent from January. There were 112 condo apartment sales last month compared to 128 one year ago, a decline of 13 per cent year over year but a 23 per cent increase from the previous month. In the row/ townhouse category, 91 units sold in February compared to 79 one year ago and 61 in January, an increase of 15 and 49 per cent, respectively.
The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) says that with housing markets so out-of-balance, it will take a substantial decline in demand to return active listings to a healthy state. A “perfect storm” of factors – including record-low supply, historically low mortgage rates, and lifestyle changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic – have resulted in dramatic price increases and highly competitive real estate transactions.
“British Columbia is in the midst of a housing crisis,” says Erica Kavanaugh, 2022 VIREB President. “Organized real estate has data-driven insights into potential solutions, which is why BCREA just released a white paper on market conditions in the province.”
For more information, check out the following resources on REALTOR Link®.
Our February 2022 Market Update is provided above and available on YouTube; it summarizes our housing market in about two minutes.
Please note: The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) transitioned to a new MLS® System in July 2020 and now uses a significantly different data model, which has affected our categories and terminology. For the boardsupplied graphs, single-family is now referred to as single-family detached, apartment as condo apartment, and townhouse as row/townhouse, which now includes patio homes. However, when reporting HPI numbers, VIREB still refers to single-family, apartment, and townhouse in the media release.
ABOUT VIREB - VIREB represents over 1,000 REALTORS® in nearly 90 member offices on Vancouver Island, from the Malahat in the south to the northern tip. VIREB cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time but does not indicate the actual prices in centres comprised of widely divergent neighbourhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas. Trademarks are owned or controlled by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify real estate professionals who are members of CREA (REALTOR® ) and/or the quality of services they provide (MLS® ). Visit our website for updated information at www.vireb.com. HPI Note: Areas with insufficient data do not generate statistics and are not included in the HPI graphs.
Courtesy of the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board