Vancouver home prices crept higher by about 0.3% in September thanks to strong sales in the month, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported October 2.
The benchmark home price in Metro Vancouver is now $633,500, up about $1,900 from the benchmark price at the end of August.
“Gains in home values are being led by the detached home market,” REBGV president Ray Harris said. “Condominium and townhome properties are not experiencing the same pressure on prices at the moment.”
Sales helped fuel home price stability.
REBGV statistics show that residential property sales in Metro Vancouver reached 2,922 on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in September 2014. That’s 17.7% more than the 2,483 sales in September 2013.
September sales were also, curiously, 5.4% more than the 2,771 sales in August, which was not only one day longer but also a month this year with five full weekends compared with only four weekends in September.
The strong sales also helped another key indicator: the sales-to-active listings ratio, which rose one percentage point to 19.7%, compared with August.
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 told BIV earlier this year.
It is then considered a sellers’ market when the ratio is above 21% for at least a few months, he added.
