The Victoria Real Estate Board has released their latest statistics for the month of April. The following is an excerpt from their press release.
A total of 824 properties sold in the Victoria Real Estate Board region this April, 26.2 per cent fewer than the 1,116 properties sold in April 2021 and a 1.1 per cent decrease from March 2022. Sales of condominiums were down 20.8 per cent from April 2021 with 262 units sold. Sales of single family homes decreased 28.5 per cent from April 2021 with 403 sold.
"The past month concluded with notably lower sales when compared to April of last year,” said 2022 Victoria Real Estate Board President Karen Dinnie-Smyth. “This tells an interesting story because activity traditionally peaks over the course of the spring, and this year we have seen a gradual softening of the market. As we have reported many times in the past years, the market hinges on supply and demand. Rising interest rates and inflationary pressures on top of higher prices throughout the region have combined to introduce new market dynamics because of waning demand that consumers and their REALTORS® are now navigating. Our inventory levels remain well below historic averages, so prices remain buoyant because the supply is still much lower than this recent decrease in demand.”
There were 1,365 active listings for sale on the Victoria Real Estate Board Multiple Listing Service® at the end of April 2022, an increase of 28.4 per cent compared to the previous month of March but a 6.1 per cent decrease from the 1,454 active listings for sale at the end of April 2021.
"The market has made a pivot compared to the spring of 2021," adds President Dinnie-Smyth. “However, we continue to see competition for lower priced homes and multiple offers are still very much a reality in our market and likely will be for some time. We are currently experiencing a lessening of demand, but that does not mean we can lose sight of the fact that our housing market needs more supply. We must continue to encourage the government and stakeholders to focus on building more homes and not on creating new rules such as a cooling-off period that have nothing to do with getting more people into homes and risk upward pressure on pricing. The market will continue to have corrections, both up and down, and government interventions must target more new doors for the long-term health of our housing market."
The Multiple Listing Service® Home Price Index benchmark value for a single family home in the Victoria Core in April 2021 was $997,500. The benchmark value for the same home in April 2022 increased by 26.9 per cent to $1,266,200, up from March's value of $1,233,700. The MLS® HPI benchmark value for a condominium in the Victoria Core area in April 2021 was $513,100 while the benchmark value for the same condominium in April 2022 increased by 26.7 per cent to $650,200, up from the March value of $635,100.
This chart tracks the ratio of total residential sales over total active residential listings at month-end for each of the last 25 months. The active listing count and the sales count can be viewed as indicators of housing supply and demand respectively. Observing the ratio between them can thus help indicate a "buyers' market", where there is downward pressure on prices, and a "sellers' market", where there is upward pressure on prices.
below 10%, there is downward pressure on prices (buyers' market)
above 25%, there is upward pressure on prices (sellers' market)
in the 15-20% range, there is little pressure on prices either way