MONTHLY STATISTICS UPDATE FOR JULY 2022
Posted by Team Biberger on
JULY 2022 Market Update
NANAIMO, BC – Due to a significant increase in inventory, July brought more options for buyers in the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) area.
Last month, active listings of single-family homes (not acreage or waterfront) climbed by 142 per cent from July 2021 and 15 per cent from June 2022, reaching 1,387. VIREB’s inventory of condo apartments hit 336 in July, 91 per cent higher than one year ago and up by 14 per cent from June. There were 267 row/townhouses for sale in July, a 107 per cent year-over-year increase and up by 20 per cent from June.
The additional inventory gives buyers more choices and mitigates the need to move too quickly when making an offer. Kelly O’Dwyer, 2022 VIREB President-Elect, notes that while sales have slowed, the tempo is more reminiscent of a typical summer market, but one the board has not seen in several years.
“While higher interest rates are certainly impacting the market, some buyers are postponing their home purchase and planning to revisit the process in the fall,” says O’Dwyer. “The pandemic threw a wrench into the real estate market, but what we’re experiencing now feels more like a typical summer.”
O’Dwyer also notes that REALTORS® are seeing price reductions on higher-priced properties, and multiple offers have decreased. Sellers may have to adjust their price expectations now that the market has shifted, although it is too early to say how long these conditions will persist.
By category, there were 297 single-family-home sales in July, a 34 per cent decrease from one year ago and down by 27 per cent from June. There were 75 condo apartment sales last month, a decline of 37 per cent year over year and down by nine per cent from June. In the row/townhouse category, 51 units changed hands in July, down 49 per cent from one year ago and 25 per cent from June 2022.
Notwithstanding higher inventory and lower sales, prices continue to rise throughout the VIREB area. The board-wide benchmark price of a single-family home reached $856,700 in July, up 22 per cent from one year ago. In the apartment category, the benchmark price hit $450,200 last month, a 26 per cent increase from July 2021. The benchmark price of a townhouse increased by 23 per cent, climbing to $624,700 in June. However, the benchmark price for the overall board area dipped by one per cent from June to July.
For more information, check out the following resources on REALTOR Link®.
Our July 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.