Fraser Valley Residential Real Estate: January 2021 Infographic
The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s statistics are out for the month of January and it’s hard to believe the speed at which the housing market is accelerating, especially considering January is historically an extremely quiet month. Home sales set more all-time records and benchmark prices continue to surge higher.
Total sales are nearly double the 10 year average for January and 50-91% higher than this time last year (depending on property type). Active listings rose since December, which is typical for the time of year, but levels are only at 70% of the 10 year average.
For the first time since 2017, sale price as a percent of list price broke 100% for detached homes and townhomes as homes are now selling for above asking. Similarly, average days on market dropped 8-15% ending the month at 67% of the January 10-year average for all home types. These statistics are not surprising given the frequency at which we hear of double-digit quantities of offers.
The spike in demand and short supply pushed benchmark prices to new heights in January. Detached homes climbed an additional 2.3%, townhomes rose 0.8% and condos increased 0.3% month-over-month. This puts the benchmark price of a detached home over 15% higher than this time last year, despite an ongoing pandemic!
Last month I made a comment about the potential for a wild Spring market. Clearly, I underestimated how quickly it would get wild.
What does this mean for development land in the Fraser Valley?
The residential home market is on an absolute tear and the single family and townhouse land markets are right there with it with multiple offers, assignments before subject removal, rapid compression of deal terms, and new record prices being achieved weekly. Some of the buyer behaviour appears undisciplined but it is what it takes to secure a development site in a market with such an enormous list of eager buyers.
In the past couple weeks it has become apparent that unless a developer/investor is in the thick of it daily, or currently selling a new project to see today’s end product revenue, an understanding of what could be paid for land 30-45 days ago is long out of date and will put any offer way out of contention
It’s not a long list, but there are sites to purchase if you can move fast.
Check out our curated summary of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s January stats in infographics below.
View the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s entire stats package for January 2021 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.
