Fraser Valley Residential Real Estate: December 2020 Infographic
It’s official: the Fraser Valley real estate market does not care there is a pandemic. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board has published the December residential market statistics, and in a historically quiet month, we saw further increases in benchmark prices and record sales figures, rounding out the year with total annual sales 12% greater than the 10 year average and 28% higher than 2019.
In the past 10 years, December has experienced an average month-over-month decline in sales of 20%. This year it was only 4%… during a pandemic. The strong sales caused active listings to decline at a rate much higher than we’ve seen in the past decade, ending the month at only 71% of the 10 year average.
The strong demand for homes held average days on market down at 74% of the 10 year average for all home types throughout the Valley. Similarly, sale price as a percent of list price held constant and even rose for detached homes. Both of these metrics are atypically strong for December, a month historically saddled with waning demand and softer competition among home buyers.
As a result of the insatiable demand and historically low levels of listings, competition for homes was fierce causing benchmark prices of all major home types to continue their upward trajectory. A few highlights include:
- Mission detached homes increased 3.6%
- Langley detached homes increased 1.9%
- Surrey-Cloverdale townhomes increased 4.3%
- Langley townhomes increased 1.3%
If December is any indication, we are in for a wild Spring market.
What does this mean for development land in the Fraser Valley?
As you would expect given the incredible performance from the residential home market, the land market in the Valley is on fire. Competition among buyers is steep, particularly for townhome and single family land, and prices are rising accordingly. Land deals that struggled to make financial sense just 3-4 months ago are now being done.
Last month I made note of an increase in developers/investors expressing concern that the current market trajectory could be short-lived but those conversations have petered out. An unrelenting residential market, more positive economic outlooks, and plenty of good news surrounding vaccine approvals is strengthening market confidence.
Check out our curated summary of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s December stats in infographics below.
View the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s entire stats package for December 2020 here.
This representation is based in whole or in part on data generated by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board which assumes no responsibility for its accuracy.
