Fraser Valley Residential Real Estate: May 2019 Infographic

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s housing market statistics are out for May and it’s largely “steady as she goes.” Benchmark prices are relatively stable throughout the Valley, sales are up over April, days on market continues to decrease mildly and inventory sits at historically normal levels.

Digging into relatively stable HPI Benchmark prices across the region, there are a couple of stats to highlight:

• HPI Benchmark price of a Fraser Valley townhouse increased by 0.1% over April 2019.
• The HPI Benchmark price for a detached home in the Fraser Valley held flat for May, despite some areas like South Surrey experiencing decreases as large as 0.9%. Price increases in Surrey-Cloverdale, Langley and Mission balanced the scales.
• The Benchmark price of a condo in the Fraser Valley decreased by 0.9%. Langley outperformed here as well, with a decrease of only 0.4%, the smallest condo price decrease of any Fraser Valley municipality.

Historically, May produces some of the year’s strongest sales figures and this year was no exception, bringing a 15% month-over-month increase. Incidentally, detached home sales showed the strongest gains, up 15%, while townhouse and condo sales rose 7% and 6% respectively.

Active listings climbed again, month-over-month, between 4 and 11% depending on home type. Despite the increases, total inventory remains relatively healthy at 96% of the 10-year average for April.

Last month we made note of signs of equilibrium in the market as the rate of change in a handful of the key stats mellowed out. That trend continued in May with the above noted mixture of HPI Benchmark price increases and decreases, as well as sale price as a percent of original list price holding relatively flat (0.2% decreases) and further decreases in average days on market. The strong buyer competition indicated by the decrease in days on market leads one to believe that the mild decreases in sale price as a percent of original list price are likely not due to waning demand but rather sellers giving in and accepting deals at market value.

What does this mean for development land in the Fraser Valley?

It is largely ‘business as usual’ for the development land market in the Fraser Valley – confidence among buyers of development land has returned and the majority of the groups we speak with would purchase a site if it is priced to market. Land in many areas has indeed been repriced but financing remains a challenge for many buyers. So, while the land market is moving again, it’s at a much milder pace than the past few years.

With that said, investors, developers and builders maintain a healthy amount of caution when it comes to any sites with servicing challenges, unknown development timelines or rezoning risk. The greatest demand remains squarely pointed at medium-sized townhouse sites with approvals, which is not surprising given townhouses consistently show some of the strongest numbers in the monthly stats.

Check out our curated summary of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s May stats in infographics below.

View the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s entire stats package for May 2019 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.