Real estate in the Fraser Valley has once again seen sales, and subsequently prices, fall for the fourth straight month. In the government’s effort to hamper inflation’s rapid growth and the harm it would bring to the real estate market they have continued to raise the prime rate. On the other hand, fixed rates seem to have stabilized over the last month and we have seen some decreases in the insured mortgage rates which is a good sign.

Over the course of July, the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) saw 993 new sales on the MLS. This is a decrease of close to 23% from June and over 50% from July of 2021, right when the province was still in the pandemic phase.

Although active listings have been nearly unchanged since June at 6,413, and increased 30.9% compared to last July, new listings only totalled 2,385. This is a decrease of 28.4% from June but only 1.9% compared to July 2021. This seems to have brought in balance for townhome and detached home sales (sales-to-active ratios: 18% and 12% for each) and an upside to apartment sellers at 28%.

When the market is in balance, the sales-top-active ratio is ideally between 12 and 20 per cent. The weakened demand has also resulted in a price drop for four successive months. This has been most noticeable in the detached home market which by the month’s end dropped 3.5% from last month leaving with a median price of $1,594,400.00.

Throughout the Fraser Valley in July, to sell a single-family detached home was on average 24 days, an apartment averaged 21 days and a townhome only averaged 19 days to sell.

The MLS® HPI Benchmark Price for a Single Family Detached home was $1,594,400. A decrease of 3.5% from June and an increase of 17.8% compared to July 2021. At $876,500, the Benchmark price for a Fraser Valley townhome declined 2% compared to June and surged up 22.7% from July 2021. An apartments’ benchmark price decreased 2.7% from June to $553,400, and climbed 21.9% compared to July of 2021.

If you need more information regarding mortgages or if you need any advice on your personal situation please contact our office at 604-556-3893 or email at alex.kotai@ymscanada.ca.

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