Vancouver's housing market has become more balanced with a higher sales-to-listings ration, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).
There were 2,347 residential property sales in Metro Vancouver in March, according to the REBGV statistics released April 3. That is an 18.3% drop from March 2012 – the second-lowest March total in the region since 2001 – and 30.2% below the 10-year sales average for the month.
Sales were up from February, but March and February are not comparable months because March is warmer and has three extra days.
The benchmark price for all residential properties now $593,100. That's up from $590,400 in February but down 3.9% compared with this time last year.
However, some good news for those selling homes is that the sales-to-listings ratio rose three percentage points to 15.2%, compared with 12.2% in February. In January, the ratio was 10.2%.
That means that, according to REBGV calculations, selling a home is getting easier.
A "buyers' market" is generally considered to be when the sales-to-listings ratio is less than 13%, REBGV past-president Eugen Klein told Business in Vancouver last year.
So, the Vancouver market has emerged from being in a buyers' market and is now in a balanced market.
This is the first time that this ratio has been above 15% since May 2012.
To get a sense of how the sales-to-listings ratio has plummeted and then rebounded during the past year, the rates were:
- 19% in March 2012;
- 13% in June, 2012; and
- 11% in October, 2012.
