Single Family Home Price Tripled Since 2006

Real estate boards across the country are releasing their January numbers. According to the report (Metro Vancouver housing market off to a quieter start than last year) release by the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board, Sales for all housing types continued to drop, falling 39.5% compared to same month last year and dropped 11.1% from December 2016. On the other hand, in Toronto, sales jumped nearly 12%, led by condos.

But a more accurate way of looking at the housing market is to take into consideration of both supply (inventory) and demand (sales). The sales-to-active listings ratio for January 2017 is 21%. Although this is the lowest ratio since January 2015, it is still above the 12%-20% for a balanced market.

Basically, the market is normalizing. It is not a extremely strong sellers market as we’ve seen in 2016 but we are still having multiple offers and no subject sales. If the home is in good condition and well priced, buyers are still fighting for it.

The following are sales to active ratio for 3 different regions in Greater Vancouver for different property types (if you would like data for a specific region, please email us):



It is a good time to buy single family house now because detached homes are in buyer’s market where buyers have more purchasing power.
Since 2006, single family house tripled their values while townhomes and condos only doubled in value in Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond.
We have seen much stronger appreciation for single family homes compared to condo and townhomes.