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OCTOBER 2024 MARKET UPDATE

NANAIMO, BC – The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) recorded 722 unit sales and 4,015 active listings (all property types) board-wide on the MLS® System in October 2024, up 42 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively.

In the single-family category (excluding acreage and waterfront), 346 homes sold in October, up 45 per cent from one year ago and eight per cent from September. Sales of condo apartments last month came in at 80, increasing by 36 per cent year over year and 16 per cent from September. In the row/townhouse category, 83 units changed hands in October, up 43 per cent from one year ago and down 11 per cent from September.

Active listings of single-family homes were 1,352 in October, up from the 1,157 posted one year ago. VIREB’s inventory of condo apartments was 366 last month, up from 307 in October 2023. There were 299 row/townhouses for sale last month compared to 265 the previous year.

Although board-wide active listings of all property types dropped from September, they were still at their second-highest level since 2019. Slowing inflation, rate cuts, and a strong Vancouver Island economy that’s outpacing the rest of the province have revitalized VIREB’s housing market.

“We saw healthy sales increases in October, ranging from 36 per cent for condo apartments to 45 per cent for single-family homes,“ says VIREB CEO Jason Yochim. “With an absorption rate of 18 per cent and around five months of inventory, the VIREB market is currently in balanced territory.”

Balanced markets with healthy inventory levels offer buyers and sellers the best of both worlds. Current listings aren’t flying off the market, but they’re also not lingering for too long.

“It looks like we’ll close out 2024 on a good note, with about 7,400 sales, significantly higher than the 7,114 sales seen in 2023,” adds Yochim.

Moving on to prices, the board-wide benchmark price (MLS® Home Price Index) of a single-family home was $777,900 in October 2024, up one per cent from one year ago and $300 less than in September. In the apartment category, the benchmark price was $395,600 last month, down three per cent from the previous October and two per cent from September. The benchmark price of a townhouse in October was $546,700, a slight decrease from one year ago and a small uptick from September.

Regardless of market conditions, connecting with a local REALTOR® can help smooth the way to a successful real estate transaction.

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

October 2024 Statistics Package

Our OCTOBER 2024 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.