October 8, 2019
I have just recently sold this listing at 305 985 JERVIS STREET, Vancouver. Blog
I have just recently sold this listing at 305 985 JERVIS STREET, Vancouver.
October 8, 2019
I have just recently sold this listing at 1973 W 33RD AVENUE, Vancouver.
October 4, 2019
Increased demand helps housing market reach balanced territoryHome buyer demand has returned to more historically typical levels in Metro Vancouver over the last three months.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential home sales in the region totalled 2,333 in September 2019, a 46.3 per cent increase from the 1,595 sales recorded in September 2018, and a 4.6 per cent increase from the 2,231 homes sold in August 2019.
Last month’s sales were 1.7 per cent below the 10-year September sales average.
“We’re seeing more balanced housing market conditions over the last three months compared to what we saw at this time last year,” Ashley Smith, REBGV president said. “Home buyers are more willing to make offers today, particularly in the townhome and apartment markets.”
There were 4,866 detached, attached and apartment properties newly listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Metro Vancouver in September 2019. This represents a 7.8 per cent decrease compared to the 5,279 homes listed in September 2018 and a 29.9 per cent increase compared to August 2019 when 3,747 homes were listed.
The total number of homes currently listed for sale on the MLS® system in Metro Vancouver is 13,439, a 2.7 per cent increase compared to September 2018 (13,084) and a 0.3 per cent increase compared to August 2019 (13,396).
For all property types, the sales-to-active listings ratio for September 2019 is 17.4 per cent. By property type, the ratio is 12.7 per cent for detached homes, 18.9 per cent for townhomes, and 21.9 per cent for apartments.
Generally, analysts say that downward pressure on home prices occurs when the ratio dips below 12 per cent for a sustained period, while home prices often experience upward pressure when it surpasses 20 per cent over several months.
“This is a more comfortable market for people on both sides of a real estate transaction,” said Smith. “Home sale and listing activity were both at typical levels for our region in September.”
The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential homes in Metro Vancouver is currently $990,600. This represents a 7.3 per cent decrease over September 2018 and a 0.3 per cent decrease compared to August 2019.
Sales of detached homes in September 2019 reached 745, a 46.7 per cent increase from the 508 detached sales recorded in September 2018. The benchmark price for a detached home is $1,406,200. This represents an 8.6 per cent decrease from September 2018 and is virtually unchanged compared to August 2019.
Sales of apartment homes reached 1,166 in September 2019, a 43.6 per cent increase compared to the 812 sales in September 2018. The benchmark price of an apartment property is $651,500. This represents a 6.5 per cent decrease from September 2018 and a 0.4 per cent decrease compared to August 2019.
Attached home sales in September 2019 totalled 422, a 53.5 per cent increase compared to the 275 sales in September 2018. The benchmark price of an attached home is $767,500. This represents a 7.2 per cent decrease from September 2018 and a 0.6 per cent decrease compared to August 2019.
Download the September 2019 stats package |
Stats by housing type and price:
September 4, 2019
From REBGV stats click rebgv stats pkg august 2019
Metro Vancouver housing market sees summer uptick in sales VANCOUVER, BC – September 4, 2019 – Home buyer activity increased to more typical
levels in Metro Vancouver* throughout the summer months.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential home sales in the region totalled 2,231 in August 2019, a 15.7 per cent increase from the 1,929 sales recorded in August 2018, and a 12.7 per cent decrease from the 2,557 homes sold in July 2019.
Last month’s sales were 9.2 per cent below the 10-year August sales average.
“Home sales returned to more historically normal levels in July and August compared to what we saw in the first six months of the year,” said REBGV President Ashley Smith.
There were 3,747 detached, attached and apartment properties newly listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Metro Vancouver in August 2019. This represents a 3.5 per cent decrease compared to the 3,881 homes listed in August 2018 and an 18.8 per cent decrease compared to July 2019 when 4,613 homes were listed.
The total number of homes currently listed for sale on the MLS® system in Metro Vancouver is 13,396, a 13.3 per cent increase compared to August 2018 (11,824) and a 5.9 per cent decrease compared to July 2019 (14,240).
For all property types, the sales-to-active listings ratio for August 2019 is 16.7 per cent. By property type, the ratio is 12 per cent for detached homes, 18.4 per cent for townhomes, and 21.2 per cent for apartments.
Generally, analysts say downward pressure on home prices occurs when the ratio dips below 12 per cent for a sustained period, while home prices often experience upward pressure when it surpasses 20 per cent over several months.
“With more demand from home buyers, the supply of homes listed for sale isn’t accumulating like earlier in the year. These changes are creating more balanced market conditions,” Smith said.
The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is currently $993,300. This represents an 8.3 per cent decrease over August 2018 and a 0.2 per cent decrease compared to July 2019.
Sales of detached homes in August 2019 reached 706, a 24.5 per cent increase from the 567 detached sales recorded in August 2018. The benchmark price for detached homes is $1,406,700. This represents a 9.8 per cent decrease from August 2018 and a 0.7 per cent decrease compared to July 2019.
Sales of apartment homes reached 1,116 in August 2019, an 8.9 per cent increase compared to the 1,025 sales in August 2018. The benchmark price of an apartment property is $771,000. This represents a 7.4 per cent decrease from August 2018 and a 0.1 per cent increase compared to July 2019.
Attached home sales in August 2019 totalled 409, a 21.4 per cent increase compared to the 337 sales in August 2018. The benchmark price of an attached unit is $654,000. This represents a 7.8 per cent decrease from August 2018, a 0.2 per cent increase compared to July 2019.
August 7, 2019
Buyers are taking advantage of the opportunity to move up and buy into the townhouse and detached home market with their price decreases in the last 2 years.
There were 2,584 homes sold of all types in Greater Vancouver in July this year compared with 2,098 homes sold last month, 2,018 sales in July last year and 3,012 homes sold in July 2017. This was 8 per cent below the 10-year average for July (compared with 33 per cent below the 10-year average last year in July). It was still the lowest number of homes sold in July since 2012 at 2,135. 1998 to 2000 saw some of the lowest number of sales in the month of July (1,758 in 2000, 2,217 in 1999 and 1,860 in 1998). Buyers are engaging. There were 841 detached houses sold in July 2019 up 32% from June's 637 sales in Greater Vancouver. We've seen a 10.5 per cent decrease in the benchmark price of these homes year over year. For townhouses there were 473 sales in July 2019 compared to 354 in July 2018 (up 33.6 per cent) with a 9 per cent decrease in the benchmark price year over year; and for condos there were 1,243 sales in July, an increase in sales from 1,079 in July 2018 (up 15.2 per cent) with an 8.8 per cent decrease in the benchmark price year over year.
Active Listings are at 15,037 for month end (up 17 per cent compared to July 2018) and after listing expiries at month’s end, there were only 14,469 active listings to start August. This was a much more significant drop in listings at the end of July than we’ve seen after the through the month of July for the last 10 years. Over the last 25 years the number of new listings in the last 6 months of the year has been 30 to 35 per cent less than the number of new listings in the first half of the year – so expect the active listing count to drop even further. Buyers will need to be decisive to take advantage of buyer market conditions.
Supply of homes in Greater Vancouver saw a decrease in the number of new listings in July compared to last month and July of last year. There were 4,719 new listings during July in Greater Vancouver, down 3 per cent from July last year and down 12 per cent from July 2017 and overall are 6 per cent below the 10-year average for July.
The mix of supply currently has 10,000 active listings priced at $1M are more – leaving less than 4,700 active listings priced below $1M in Greater Vancouver. Looking at 13,576 sales in the first 7 months of 2019, there have been only 347 sales above $3M; 672 sales between $2m to $3M; 3,382 sales between $1M to $2M and 9,018 sales below $1M. The competition is clearly in the least suppled range of homes, yet this is not the focus of policy for all levels of government. The provincial government is intent on focusing policy on the least active segment of the market by trying to control that demand. Which begs the question, how are they making housing more affordable by not focusing on the supply of the lower end of the market?
Below is the historical month by month data in Greater Vancouver going back to the early 90’s showing sales, new listings and active listings. The yellow highlighted areas for sales show the slowest months of the market and for active listings, the highest number of active listings we’ve seen in the market. Clearly this latest slowdown in the real estate market saw one of the more prolonged decrease in sales but the least number of active listings for a down market. Sellers are confident and the idea of a significant drop in values won’t happen with that confidence.
See Full Stats Package here:
July 19, 2019
From: The Daily Hive
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-mural-art-shepard-fairey-july-2019
Shepard Fairey’s 2008 Obama “Hope” poster. (Larissa Dundon)
An American graphic artist and social activist has announced that he’ll be painting a clear picture of Earth’s environmental crisis in downtown Vancouver in the form of a 20-storey mural.
Shepard Fairey will be featured in the Burrard Arts Foundation‘s new large-scale, rotating public art program called Surface Series located at a corner of West Georgia and Burrard streets.
Fairey is well known for his 2008 portrait of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama titled “Hope,” and has painted nearly 100 public murals around the world which included efforts to change the conversation around art and urban landscape.
Surface Series will complete its inaugural work titled “Earth Justice” by Fairey on August 7 — this will be the artist’s first mural in Vancouver and the body of work will be centred on the concept that this generation is facing an environmental crisis.
The Surface Series commission is presented in partnership with the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association in collaboration with this year’s Vancouver Mural Festival, which is running from August 1 to 10.
Fairey said he chose the mural “Earth Justice,” which is about respecting and preserving the planet, for Vancouver because the city is a place with a lot of natural beauty and an environmentally-themed mural would be a reminder to protect its current conditions, climate, and environment.
In an interview with Daily Hive Vancouver, Fairey said: “I hope they think not just about themselves, but that the world is worth fighting for, for all of us.”
“Because climate change and environmental destruction will soon dwarf all other issues. Famine and population displacement will lead to many nations destabilizing and likely arise in acts of desperation, terrorism included.” Fairey said.
“Art is often tucked away in galleries and museums, and environmental policy discussions are often tucked away in politicians’ offices. I would like to see art and discussions of the future of the planet have a more public role. A mural on the scale of Earth Justice changes the cityscape and can’t be ignored. I hope that it not only fuels a discussion, but inspires others to use art in a similar way,” he said.
Fairey said since a young age he liked to draw, and he saw an opportunity in how to use his creativity within cultures he was passionate about, “skateboarding and punk rock were about do-it-yourself promotion such as making stencils, stickers and t-shirts, and my favourite punk rock, like the Dead Kennedys and The Clash, had a lot to say socially and politically. When I realized I wasn’t going to succeed in becoming a professional skateboarder, I decided I would make art with messages in part because it was the only thing that I was good at.”
Fairey said he created the “Hope” poster like others he’s made, “speaking my mind, but I did create a free download hoping it would become a viral tool of grassroots activism. It resonated with people far more than I ever could have imagined and the production and dissemination of that image to support Obama became the largest focus of a year of my life, which brought both opportunity and stress.”
“Obama sent me a very nice letter only a month after I created the image, thanking me and it included the line, ‘your images have a profound effect on people whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign,'” Fairey said. “That was pretty amazing to me because I think it’s safe to interpret that as an implied endorsement of street art,” adding that he had met Obama a few times, “he’s an extraordinary human being who is intelligent and compassionate… what you would hope for in a public servant.”
Founder and Board President of Burrard Arts Foundation, Christian Chan, said public art, “is a catalyst to spark creative inspiration, foster civic discourse, promote cultural understanding and build social capital.”
“We’re thrilled to launch Surface Series with Shepard Fairey. ‘Earth Justice’ addresses the question of how to balance respect for our precious ecosystem with economic growth, progress and expansion in a city known for both its nature and economic development. Shepard has the unique ability to capture the public imagination, generate positive dialogue and spur people to action through bold and beautiful artwork,” Chan said.
Fairey is set to begin work on the 20-storey mural August 1 or 2, with three assistants and using a combination of roller paint, spray paint with a grid system of stencils and traditional brushes, he said.
Fairey said while the message of Earth Justice works for Vancouver, it also works globally, “we are all connected, and our actions impact the entire planet.”
The launch of Earth Justice will also coincide with an art exhibition at Burrard Arts Foundation featuring Fairey’s work called Facing the Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent, showing works that address recurring topics in Fairey’s career including gender equality, abuse of power and self-empowerment, to name a few.
July 10, 2019
Inventory levels are running about 10% below the 10 year average and as a result in spite of slower than normal sales we are seeing more multiple offers on properties in the past month because pricing has caught up to market reality and there is only a moderate supply.
Full Stats Package here
July 3, 2019
June stats released by Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver
http://members.rebgv.org/news/REBGV-Stats-Pkg-June-2019.pdf
May 25, 2019
In my opinion there is sure to be a supply deficit come 2022 which will only drive prices UP!
Developers hit pause on riskier, highrise condo projects: Urban Analytics
Highrise condo projects, which carry significant risk for developers and construction lenders, comprised the largest proportion of postponed developments
Highrise condo projects, which carry significant risk for developers and construction lenders, comprised the largest proportion of postponed developments, according to Urban Analytics, which tracks presale condo data.
Vancouver-based developer Townline gave official notice that it’s postponing its Meridian project, a 39-storey tower with one-, two- and three-bedroom units near the Evergreen Line in Coquitlam.
Other developers, who had been scheduled to launch sales in recent months, have been more discreetly letting key dates go by without proceeding as planned. And there is market chatter about others who will join them.
It’s no wonder some developers are hitting pause, according to Michael Ferreira, managing principal at Urban Analytics, which keeps track of presale condo data.
The number of new or presale condo and townhome sales recorded across Metro Vancouver during the first quarter of 2019 represented a 56-per-cent drop from the last quarter and a 61-per-cent drop from the same quarter last year. At 1,783, it was the third-lowest quarterly sales total since 2010, after the global financial and credit crisis.
The postponing of several condo-project launches in the first quarter of 2019 meant 75-per-cent fewer units were released for sale, compared with the previous quarter.
“Highrise condo projects, which carry significant risk for developers and construction lenders, comprised the largest proportion of postponed developments,” said Ferreira in a news release.
Consultant Michael Ferreira of Vancouver-based Urban Analytics says highrise projects that carry significant financial risk for developers have hit a major slowdown.
Projects that are more dependent on buyers who are investors have also been hit hard, as investors are “more apt to stay on the sidelines and wait for what they perceive as a bottom of the market.”
This impacted some findings for the quarter. For example, there was a more significant drop in sales in the area north of the Fraser River because of the greater concentration of highrise developments there.
To compare, while highrise condo sales fell by 61 per cent year-on-year, there was only a 28-per-cent drop for lowrise condo sales.
The Real Estate Development Marketing Act requires developers to secure construction financing nine months after they file a disclosure statement, which allows them to legally sell their units. When presales were selling like hotcakes, this timeline was easy to meet.
Now, “with such a short window in which to meet presale targets required to obtain financing, developers are reluctant to launch a new project without some certainty they’ll meet those targets,” said Ferreira.
He added that the “overwhelming majority of unsold units are in the pre-construction phase, with completed and unsold units accounting for just six per cent of all unsold inventory.”
Across Metro, 93 per cent of all highrise-condo units scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020 are sold. The number goes down to 80 per cent of units being sold when looking at units that will be completed later in the third quarter of 2022.
Only in a few markets such as South Surrey/White Rock, Langley/Cloverdale and Richmond/South Delta were there more than 50 completed, move-in ready units that were unsold.
Overall, the total number of completed, move-in-ready-but-unsold units at the end of the first quarter of 2019 was 453. This figure has been increasing “moderately” and is an 18-per-cent increase over the last quarter, but still well below the high of just over 2,200 that was recorded in the last quarter of 2013, according to Urban Analytics.
May 24, 2019
Equity loss cause for alarm
Today, at an event hosted by STEPUP, I released analysis that shows nearly $90 billion of estimated losses in homeowner equity across Metro Vancouver, largely driven by new federal and provincial government policies and taxes on homes.
This report is cause for alarm.
Our analysis uses sales data to determine an estimated loss of homeowner equity over the past year. It uses assessed values as a base to illustrate an estimate of total residential value prior to the downward market movement indicated by the actual sales transactions reported by the real estate boards of Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
Across the region, the grand total is a whopping $89.2 billion in lost equity. Percentage decreases range from a 4.76-per-cent drop in Pitt Meadows, to a 14.76-per-cent decrease in West Vancouver — the hardest hit municipality.
Per household, the equity loss is tens of thousands across the board, including $153,873 in Vancouver and $451,385 in West Vancouver.
These are not just numbers on paper, nor is it a problem for a few wealthy homeowners being targeted by specific taxes. This rapid loss has a real impact on families in all Metro Vancouver communities. Almost half of those billions in losses are outside Vancouver and West Vancouver.
Most of the time, home ownership is a worthy investment. Values change from year to year but generally increase over time, providing equity and hopefully some financial security for tough times and retirement.
We rely on the investment in our home for financial security now and in the future. Equity can be pulled out of your home to pay for things like unexpected emergency expenses, home renovations, post-secondary education and senior care costs.
For many people, diligent saving and paying down a mortgage is their retirement plan. Outside of a few sectors, guaranteed work retirement plans are a thing of the past. Once retirement and fixed income comes along, knowing that you have that equity gives you peace of mind, whether you choose to refinance, downsize or stay put with your grown children. And, of course, many seniors hope to leave a little something to their children.
A senior in Delta, for example, on a fixed monthly income facing a $67,000 loss in equity in one year faces much greater uncertainty about their future. Can they stay in their home? Can they afford the prescriptions and health care that they need?
And what if you haven’t been in your house for decades? Let’s think of a young family in Port Coquitlam who saved to put a 10-per-cent downpayment on a $650,000 condo in 2018. But wait! You have lost 10 per cent in equity since you bought! You are now paying interest on a loan that exceeds the home’s value, with little to no equity to access should unexpected repairs be required.
Research from the B.C. Real Estate Association shows that the equity loss has a significant impact across the economy: local businesses, retail sales, workers and housing starts are affected. It makes sense, if you are suddenly facing economic uncertainty, you are going to immediately tighten your budget. Tough choices have to be made.
Real estate markets are complex and no single policy change can be attributed to the loss being felt by homeowners in Metro Vancouver. However, real estate, like most investment types, is impacted by perceived risk. Recent provincial government taxes on housing as well as the new federal stress test rules on mortgages have acted to create uncertainty and perceived risk in the local market, which has stalled new development and reduced many household’s ability to access funds for discretionary spending. This will have a broader negative impact on the economy that has yet to be felt.
The risk is just too great, and a serious threat to our economic well-being.
Paul Sullivan is a senior partner at Burgess Cawley Sullivan and Associates, one of the largest commercial real estate appraisal and property tax consulting groups in Canada. This article appeared in the Vancouver Sun on May 21, 2019.
