Swollen Real Estate Inventories Favour Home Buyers.
Buying Real Estate in Victoria BC is getting easier and easier. We now have some more inventory and buyers have a great selection of properties to choose from. Either you want a small little condo of a luxury or very prestigious piece of real estate.
British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports residential sales dollar volume on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in BC declined 38 per cent to $2.9 billion in July, compared to July 2007. Residential unit sales fell 37 per cent to 6,541 units during the same period. The average MLS® residential price in the province was $444,358, down 0.5 per cent from July 2007.
Home sales (all types of real estate) in British Columbia have slowed to a level not seen since the beginning of the decade. BC households are now cautious about making major purchases in light of uncertainty around fuel prices and other inflationary pressures and real estate can be one of those major purchases.
The slowdown in housing demand has swollen the inventory of homes for sale, putting downward pressure on home prices in some areas of British Columbia. According to BCREA there was a total of 60,008 homes were for sale on the MLS® in July (for all of BC), an increase of 63 per cent from the previous year. We think this inventory will decline in the coming months as we head in to fall. This will more then likely hold true for most BC regions. In other words, we will have a buyers’ market for the remainder of 2008.
Further BCREA reports that year-to-date MLS® residential sales dollar volume in the province declined 18 per cent to $23.2 billion compared to the same period last year. Sales transactions fell 24 per cent to 49,448 units, while the average residential price increased 8.2 per cent to $469,676 over the same period.
There are now great opportunity to buy in to Victoria and British Columbia Real Estate. Want to know our thoughts on why you should buy real estate? Check out our previous blog.
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Cheers,
Bill
Bill Ethier B.Sc – REALTOR®
Properties in Victoria Professionals- Royal LePage Coast Capital Realty
Bill has been a REALTOR® in Victoria since 2006. Originally from the Vancouver area, Bill moved to Victoria to attend the University of Victoria where he received his Bachelor of Science. Not only does Bill have a wealth of real estate knowledge he is also an active member of the community. He is a member of Triple Shot Cycling Club, Island Road Racers and is the Race Director for the Sooke River 10K.
