Sales & New Listings Begin to Normalize In May
The detached market has had a noticeable rebound in recent months. This was something I discussed last month in the Vancouver Real Estate Detached Market Report April 2017. In May, that trend continued. Sales returned to normal levels and new listings also inched closer to healthy levels. The market sentiment appears to be that things have stabilized and this is the new norm. Agree or disagree, let’s break down the numbers.
Detached Sales
REBGV detached sales fell 17% year over year. A noticeable decline, but not even close to the panic inducing 50% drops we were experiencing just a few months ago. Of course, this is also around the time the market began it’s downturn last year. All areas experienced a decline year over year, and an uptick month over month. Due to seasonal fluctuations you’ll likely see detached sales begin to drop in the coming months.
New Listings & Inventory
New listings have recovered after undergoing a strange purge over the last few months. Call it a late start to the spring selling season, but it appears new listings have reached healthy levels again. REBGV detached new listings were still down 10% year over year, but were just 1.5% below the 10 year average. Total inventory levels remain slightly above last years totals.
Sales to Actives Ratio
REBGV- 32% Vancouver East- 27% Vancouver West- 33% Richmond- 26% Burnaby- 27% 
Prices
Your friendly reminder that average sales prices can fluctuate significantly monthly. With that being said, REBGV detached average sales price set a new all time high at $1,831,790. However, although it might be hard to digest, the typical house is not more expensive today than it was a year ago. Although, that could change if the sales/actives ratio stays in a sellers market for an extended period of time.
Summary
Detached sales rebounded nicely and new listings also picked up some momentum. There seems to be a bit of upward pressure on prices and there’s no question detached prices have regained some ground after a cooling off during the fall/winter of 2016. This comes after three consecutive months with REBGV sales/actives ratio above 20%.
