“ Character is much easier kept than recovered.” -Thomas Paine

This is no longer a comeback! This is a real estate market making its own way into 2021. This is well beyond pent up demand and more like a surge of moves being made for a variety of reasons. Those buying and selling have had more confidence in the real estate market than did the federal organization that insures mortgages in Canada – and true to form, the customer is always right! 

 
There were 3,181 properties sold of all types in Greater Vancouver in November this year; compared with 3,787 sold in September, 2,546 sales in November last year, and 1,633 sold in November 2018. It was the fifth highest amount of sales for the month of November on record in Greater Vancouver, and the highest for the month since 2015 at 3,603. Total sales for 2020 have already exceeded the total number of sales in 2018 and 2019 with December still to come. Instances of multiple offers are still occurring at a rate...

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” -Lou Holtz

There were 3,787 properties sold of all types of homes in Greater Vancouver in October this year; compared with 3,741 sold in September, 2,892 sales in October of 2019 and 1,995 sold in October 2018. It was the second highest amount of sales for the month of October in Greater Vancouver, second to 3,942 in 2003. And it is interesting to note that total sales in Greater Vancouver so far in 2020 are just shy of the total sales in 2019 and have already surpassed total sales in 2018. This is much more than pent up demand from a Covid-19 shutdown in the spring. 

While this hasn’t been a typical year, it is safe to assume we’ll see this trend playout for the next 3 months as we come off the highs we’ve experienced. This shouldn’t be surprising nor indicative of anything more as we go through a typical year of market cycles, November, December and January...

“ It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.” - Winston Churchill

The resale housing market is helping to lead us out of the Great Suppression – now who would have thought that would be the case when we dived into the dark days back in March. Certainly not CMHC - the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation after they tried to convince everyone there would be a decline in activity and prices. And I’m sure our provincial government is glad CMHC was wrong as they take in the benefits of the property transfer tax revenue these sales generated – not to mention the ancillary economic benefits that come from the sale of homes. This was a month for the record books – highest sales for the month of September on record. And yes, there were almost a record number of new listings that came on the market, but given the lack of properties that have been available, this was and is still needed to contain run away price growth....

There seemed to be more competition in the real estate market than in the National Hockey League this August – who ever thought that would be a comparison for this time of year. If we thought competing offers were a constant in July, after a tempered start in the first half of August, we experienced two weeks with the most amount of sales reported this year after that. Amid all the chatter of economic disruption and its potential negative effects on the housing market, real estate has taken on a life of its own and clearly wants nothing to do with slowing down. And guess what? – it’s local! All the while buyers vying for various types of properties in different areas are walking away from competing offers still looking for their home. Demand side measures haven’t eased the burden for buyers in Metro Vancouver and supply continues to be an issue.   

There were 3,122...

"Hope will never be silent.” – Harvey Milk

Is this the real life? or is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality? The lyrics fit well right now.  After seeing real estate sales in July be the highest in three years, the questions have been bouncing around as to whether this is a short-term result or a market intent on continuing to produce through the rest of 2020. With all that is happening in our world, it’s easy to contemplate the downside. We would be naïve to think that COVID-19 isn’t going to be a factor going forward – both in terms of the virus itself, or the economic conditions resulting from shutting down parts of society to deal with it. What we know is what is currently happening  though– interest rates are the lowest they have ever been, pent up demand from over two years, not to mention the shut down in March and April, and a strong desire to find a different home have propelled the real estate...

"A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.” – Eeyore

We have moved into Phase 3 of the British Columbia COVID-19 Restart Plan which will allow for more businesses to open up, movement around the province and improvement in economic conditions. In looking at home sales in June, the real estate market had already moved into its next phase as June began with buyers and seller having become more engaged in real estate. With limited showing measures and the continued focus on virtual means as a way to be introduced to homes for sale, week by week in June home sales kept increasing. There appears to be a renewed fever in the market, with market conditions coming close to resembling those seen at the beginning of March, pre COVID. And as the incidence for COVID-19 continue to be the lowest in Canada and in North America, there will be a positive energy that carries through the region and into real estate. And as the lyrics go from a song released...

" It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

We are all in the arena right now, and it is going to take the work of us all to come through what we are fighting today. Understanding compassion and humility will never be as important as it is during...

"It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi

We will get back up! Considering the extent of lock down, the momentum of what March started certainly carried over into April. While sales were down and new listings were down, there was still participation in the market as Realtors found ways to present properties virtually and look at ways to ensure socially distanced showings could happen if necessary. Buyers were there and continue to be, with multiple offers occurring, even as of last week.

There were 1,119 homes sold of all types in Greater Vancouver in April this year compared with 2,562 homes sold last month, 1,850 sales in April last year and 2,631 homes sold in April 2018. Sales and listings were well below the ten-year average but actually higher than in November and December 2008 and January 2009, all three months below 1,000 homes sold. The last two weeks of April showed home sales average 48 per day compared with 138...

"Our patience will achieve more than our force” – Edmund Burke

Where to begin. This month’s numbers for Greater Vancouver real estate are a tale of what could have been, not so much what will be. The way sales on a given day are counted by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver are by looking at the day when that sale is reported by a real estate company to the Board, regardless of when the date the contract is written. So, there is a time lag between when the contract is written and when it is reported. This will be important in looking at sales figures for March as a degree of that activity came from transactions that were initiated prior to mid-March.

There were 2,562 homes sold of all types in Greater Vancouver in March this year compared with 2,185 homes sold last month, 1,745 sales in March last year and 2,551 homes sold in March 2018. Sales in March were 19 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of March. The number of sales in March were...

"You can never plan the future by the past.” – Edmund Burke

Average is the new up! Vancouver prices have gone up and will rise even more. What seemed like a very exuberant real estate market in Greater Vancouver in February produced an average volume of sales. With multiple offers a consistent theme, less so with detached homes, one would think it was a record month for total number of sales – especially with 42 offers on a house in Kitsilano. But funny, that supply and demand equation still rings true, when there isn’t enough supply to meet the demand, prices shift up and competition occurs.

British Columbia’s finance minister said that she is cautiously optimistic that real estate will become affordable for the average citizen over the next year, even though demand is expected to keep eclipsing supply. Think about that for a second. The number of buyers is increasing more than the number of sellers. What happens when there is scarcity of something?...