Metro Vancouver continues to experience above-average demand and below-average supply
In the report, REBGV president Jill Oudil said: “We’re seeing steady demand in today’s market. Home buyer activity is operating above our long-term averages, particularly in our townhome and condominium markets.” “While we’re seeing more listings enter the market today than we saw at this time last year, we have a long way to go before our home listing inventory rises back to more historically typical levels.”
We can see the buyer demand and seller supply from the sales-to-active ratios:
- Sales-to-active listings ratio for November 2017 was 32% for all property types (upward pressure on price if ratio remained 20% for sustained period – which has been the case since March 2015)
- Sales-to-active listings ratio for different property types in November:
- 16% for detached homes (balanced supply and demand when ratio between 12-20%)
- 36% for townhomes (seller’s market – upward pressure on price)
- 68% for apartments (seller’s market – upward pressure on price)
The sales to active ratio for all property types in Greater Vancouver had remained above 20% since March 2015, putting upward pressure on home prices (see graph below):
As a result, home prices have been increasing since March 2015 when the Sales-to-Active ratio has reached above 20% for sustained period of time. Below is a 5 year graph of the HPI benchmarks which represent the price of a typical property within Greater Vancouver:
