More power is coming to those looking to purchase a home in Metro Vancouver, with some segments of the region's real estate officially in a buyers' market.
Vancouver may still be the most expensive market in the country for detached homes, but a new report from real estate marketing company Rennie found that detached homes in West Vancouver and the west side of Vancouver have shifted into a buyers' market.
Low inventory has plagued markets all across the country, but with listings rising and sales falling, the sales-to-new-listings ratio of detached homes in these two areas now sits below 12%, officially putting them in buyers' market territory. On the west side of Vancouver, the ratio for detached homes is just under the mark, coming in at 11%. In West Vancouver, it's an even lower 10%.
"Swelling supply and declining demand have conspired to create more moderate conditions in the housing market of the Vancouver Region -- so much so, in fact, that for the first time in two years the detached home segment shifted into balanced territory," the report reads.
West Vancouver saw sales of detached homes down 7% from the previous month as listings jumped up 7%. Similarly, the west side of Vancouver saw a 4% bump in detached home listings month over month as sales fell a sizeable 14%.
Although no other markets in the Greater Vancouver area have made their way to being a buyers' market, several are now considered balanced markets, including the detached home markets in the east side of Vancouver, Surrey, Squamish, Richmond, New Westminster, Langley, Burnaby, and the Fraser Valley area. The condo market in West Vancouver is also balanced. With the exception of Richmond, none of these were considered balanced markets just one month prior, hinting at an overall shift in the Vancouver market.
In fact, the Vancouver region's sales-to-new-listings ratio came in at 27% in May -- the lowest it's been since August 2020. Condos continue to have the highest competition levels, with the ratio sitting firmly in sellers' market territory at 35%. Townhomes aren't far behind with a sales-to-new listings ratio of 31%. But it may not necessarily stay that way.
"If the market inertia -- of expanding inventory and blunted sales -- that has ensconced itself in 2022 continues as we transition through the month of June (or should we say Juneuary) and into summer, don't be surprised if the balanced conditions currently reserved for describing the detached segment become more contagious," the report reads.
