Listen closely when people are throwing around stats about Metro Vancouver home prices. First thing to ask is, which kind of price are they talking about?
Here is a summary of the differences:
- average home price: the average of all house prices within a category, e.g., the total of all condo sale prices in Tsawwassen divided by the number of condos sold;
- median home price: the midpoint of sales prices where an equal number of properties were sold above and below this sales price; and
- benchmark home price: the MLS® estimate of the value of a "typical" home in a community, based on the most popular combination of features, e.g., age, size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms. You'll find separate benchmark prices for detached, attached and condo homes; and
- House Price Index (HPI): Ongoing record tracking aggregate sales of similar homes.
Here is a short video to explain:
MLS has its own HPI which traces the price trends for detached, attached and apartment properties. The baseline of 100 was set on Jan. 2005 prices. Some highly populated areas have been broken down for more complete data.
Two Canadian companies also publish HPIs. The Teranet National Bank House Price Index covers eleven cities including Metro Vancouver and Victoria. There's also the Brookfield RPS House Price Index, starting in 2005 and covering 13 cities, including Metro Vancouver and Victoria.
