August 2020 was a hot month in Vancouver, but we are not talking Weather!

Many people who make a living in Vancouver cannot afford to buy a detached home in the city. Like in many larger cities, people will commute to the suburbs, where freestanding houses cost less. It appears that there have been some shifts in the Vancouver Market, and Matrix Mortgage Global was curious as to exactly what was happening real estate wise in the south central part of Canada, especially when it comes to detached homes.

In June of this year, the real estate marketing and analytics platform found that median sale prices have fallen for detached homes in Richmond, North Vancouver and Coquitlam in the months after the pandemic struck.  Richmond saw the sharpest drop at 10% while Coquitlam and North Vancouver saw 9% and 7% price drops, respectively. In the City, prices in Vancouver East hit $1,502,700, up 10.1% from last year. In Vancouver West, the benchmark reached $3,084,600, up 5.6% from last year. The increase marks the fastest price growth in years for detached homes.

 It appears that although people put their home buying and selling plans on hold in the spring, they have been returned to the market throughout the summer. Let’s take a closer look at the number to get a sharpened understanding of some of the trends.

 The price of a detached home in Greater Vancouver has gotten a boost during the pandemic. REBGV’s  (Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver) detached benchmark reached $1,491,300 in August, up 6.6% from the same month last year (betterdwelling.com).

Like most markets and segments, Greater Vancouver is seeing a significant increase in sellers hitting the market. REBGV reported 1,837 new listings in August, down 3.57% from the month before. This works out to an increase of 41.85% from the same month last year. Despite the flood of new listings, it was lower than the rise in sales, pushing total inventory levels lower.

REBGV reported 4,614 active listings for detached homes in August, up 3.45% from a month before. This number is still 21.84% lower than the same month last year. While that makes the market tighter, it’s nowhere as tight as it was back in 2015 when sales were last this high. 

Greater Vancouver detached sales had the best August in years. REBGV reported 1,095 detached sales in August, down 2.3% from the month before. The increase works out to 55.1% higher than the same month last year. Incredibly, that makes this past August the busiest for detached sales since 2015. 

 Greater Vancouver detached prices are rising rapidly, but are still down from just a few years ago. They aren’t quite back to where they were a few years ago, but price growth is undeniably accelerating. REBGV data shows prices are still down 6.5% from just three years ago. In the City, Vancouver East is down 3.1% and Vancouver West is down 15.7% from three years ago. New listings are also rising quickly, making it a very different market.

What does this mean? It means that for people working in Vancouver determined not to give up the dream of a single family home, there is hope. Over the last month or so, there has been an increase of sold detached homes found off the line of the West Coast Express. From Downtown Vancouver, the 69-kilometre line runs to Mission, where in August, detached homes were starting at $500,000.

The median price of a detached home in Mission reached $746,200 in July 2020, an 8.9% increase compared to June this year. The median price in July represents a 20.4% increase over the same month in 2019.

Like everything else in our lives these days, the uncertainty COVID-19 presents makes it challenging to predict what will happen this fall, but Matrix Mortgage Global is here to answer any questions you may have. If you found this article helpful feel free to reach out to us, and find out ways to make the buying and selling of your home seamless, and easy.