As usual, this review covers residential real estate in and near Victoria, BC, with the exception of Sooke. This report looks at single family homes, and compares recent market activity with comparable periods a year earlier.
Long Term Comparison
Comparison of two twelve month periods, one ending October 19, 2006, and one ending October 19, 2005, tells two stories.
The first story is that the number of listings was up 15%, the number of sales was down about 17%, and the percentage of sales to listings during the two periods decreased by 20%, going from 75% for the earlier year to 55% for the most recent year.
The second story relates to how this dramatic change was distributed throughout the market. For homes listed below $400K, both listings and sales were down dramatically. Above that price range, listings were up by an amazing 46%. Although sales in the higher price range was up by a respectable 20%, certainly new sales ran well behind new listings.
Short Term Comparison
Comparing the four week period running from September 22 to October 19, 2006 with the corresponding period for 2005 tells a consistent, but slightly less dramatic, story.
Listings were up 16%, while sales were only down 6% (as apposed to a 17% reduction for the twelve month period discussed above).
Sales velocity for homes sold seems quite consistent for these two periods. And for both periods there were about the same percentage of homes that sold for more than the original listing price, and a similar percentage of price reductions during the listing period.
The average price (for what the figure is worth) for other than new homes moved from approximately $500K during the four week period a year ago to $562 in the recent period. That’s an increase of about about 12%. Change to the median figure was just under 10%, up.
Summary
It’s very clear the market has slowed, and that the trend is continuing. While year over year average and median prices still show an increase, a comparison of just the recent few months would likely reveal a reversal in the direction of selling price. We’ll plot that in my next report for single family dwelling sales activity. Or, maybe I’ll prepare a special report on just that issue.
Meanwhile, my next report due out will examine condo activity.
Bye for now,
...Victoria's blogging real estate professional.
