Strong sales helped push the benchmark Metro Vancouver home price to $628,200 in June, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) announced July 3. That’s $4,200 more than in May and a rise of 4.4% compared with the $601,900 benchmark price in June 2013.
The region had 3,406 sales on the multiple listing service (MLS) in June, which is 3.7% more than in May and a 28.9% jump compared with June 2013.
“Our MLS statistics tell us that there’s more home buyer demand today than at any point over the last three years,” said REBGV president Ray Harris.
A key metric to determine a market’s strength is the sales-to-active-listing ratio and Vancouver’s ratio has risen to 21.3%, which is the highest the measure has been since June 2011.
Conventional real estate wisdom is that a market is considered to be a buyers’ market when the sales-to-active-listings ratio is below 13%. A balanced market exists when the ratio is between 13% and about 21%, Harris explained. It is then considered a sellers’ market when the ratio is above 21% for at least a few months, he added.
To get a sense of how much of an upward trajectory the trend-line has been for the sales-to-active-listings ratio, the indicator was as low as 8% in September 2012.
As has been the case in the past several years, it is detached homes that is leading the rally. The benchmark home price for detached homes rose to $976,700, or $10,200 more than last month. The benchmark price for apartments, in contrast, rose to $378,000, or $500 more than in May.
The benchmark prices for other attached homes rose to $471,200, or $2,200 more than in May.
