As usual, I am comparing a four week period in 2006 with the corresponding four week period last year: from August 4 to August 31, both years. And again as usual, the coverage is of all the municipalities around Victoria, excluding Sooke. Here’s what I found.
Sales
One of the comparison figures surprised me a bit. The number of condominium properties sold in the two periods was virtually identical: 165 for 2005 versus 166 for 2006. Taken alone, that suggests nothing much has changed. But it’s not a good idea to take it alone.
New Listings
The number of new listings to hit the market during the 2006 period was up by a whopping 23 percent: from 216 then to 265 now. That percentage change was pretty much the same for both newly constructed condos (21%) and previously owned units (23%), so the jump in condo listings doesn’t seem to be attributable to new condos being brought onto the market.
Sales Velocity
Let’s go back to sales for a minute. Sales velocity was significantly down, from an overall average of 42 days on the market then to 55 days on the market now. A reminder here – this is the average length of time it took for the condos that actually sold to sell – the figure does not take into account the units that were listed but which didn’t sell at all.
For non-new sales, sales velocity went from 33 days last year to 44 days this year.
Prices
The average selling price advanced by approximately 22 percent period over period, but don’t take this to the bank! Averages based on any four week period can fluctuate considerably, because statistically the number of transactions that take place in such a short period of time is relatively small. The fewer transactions, the larger, and less meaningful, the price changes from period to period. The trend line over time is more significant.
Here’s something more about the average selling prices. New construction jumped by 33% in selling price, and there were twice as many of them sold in the 2006 period (51) than a year earlier (25). So, the increase in average selling price for used condominium units was considerably less, at about 19 percent. My report for the four week period ending August 10 put the corresponding figure for that period at about 15 percent.
Price Adjustments
A year ago, of the 140 or so used condos that sold during the period, about 32 of them had reductions to their listing price while listed. This year? The figure increased only very marginally, to about 38. But the overall average difference between average original list price and average selling price increased from just under 2% to about 3.4%.
Summary
Listings up considerably, sales steady, sales velocity decreasing significantly: these are factors suggesting the market is less of a seller’s market now than last year. But is it a buyer’s market? It may be moving in that direction in terms of choices, but there were surprisingly (to me) few price reductions. It will be interesting to see whether the gap between new listings and sales becomes a trend.
Bye for now,
...Victoria's blogging real estate professional.
