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OCTOBER MARKET UPDATE

NANAIMO, BC – Last month, there were 244 sales of single-family homes in the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) area, the same number as last October and down by eight per cent from September 2023 (266). Sales of condo apartments in October came in at 60, increasing by 43 per cent year over year and down 29 per cent from September. In the row/townhouse category, 58 units changed hands last month, up 14 per cent from one year ago and down 18 per cent from September.

Active listings of single-family homes were 1,157 in October, down from 1,360 one year ago. VIREB’s inventory of condo apartments was 307 last month, down from 314 listings in October 2022. There were 265 row/townhouses for sale last month compared to 296 one year ago.

“October was slower than expected, continuing the trend of the past few months,” says Kelly O’Dwyer, 2023 Chair. “High interest rates and a mortgage stress test of eight per cent are taking a toll on demand.”

In fact, the British Columbia Real Estate Association anticipates that VIREB will close out the year with around 7,100 sales, which would be the lowest number posted since 2013.

“REALTORS® are reporting that some buyers and sellers have already decided to wait until spring to buy or list their home, hoping that interest rates will drop,” adds O’Dwyer.

Regardless of market conditions, connecting with a local REALTOR® can help smooth the way to a successful real estate transaction. They have specialized knowledge of their communities and will help you develop a winning strategy for buying or selling a home.

For more information and full update, check out the following resources on REALTOR Link®.

OCTOBER 2023 Statistics Package

 Our OCTOBER 2023 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.