No longer is the relative high cost of housing the sole barrier to homeownership on southern Vancouver Island as low re-sale listings create "gridlock" for buyers across the affordability spectrum.

 

 

The Victoria Real-Estate Board’s (VREB) latest sales data shows 835 properties changed hands in July through the Multiple Listings Services, a 15% decline from last July’s 979 sales. The largest impact was felt in the single-family-dwelling market, according to the VREB, which saw transactions plummet nearly 30% due to razor thin supply.

 

"The real-estate story right now continues to be inventory," said Victoria Real Estate Board President David Langlois. "The market is driven by inventory; and fewer home listings lead to fewer home sales. In that context, these numbers do not reflect a downturn in our market but reveal sales falling due to this continued trend of low inventory.”

 

Compared to July of 2020, active inventory levels have fallen 52% to 1,270-units, a far cry from last year’s 2,653 (which was considered then as ultra-low). Listings were also 7.6% lower than in June of this year when 1,375 units were available.

 

"As a sort of housing gridlock continues to develop, the pressure to create more of all different types of homes in our community should not be lessened," added Langlois. "It is important for the long term health of our housing market that a strong focus continue on developing new homes to meet our growing demand.”

 

Victoria REALTOR® Marko Juras calls the drop in listings "shockingly low."

 

"The drop in new listings has created record low inventory of 1,270, this is a record low," Juras says. "1,270 active listings is shockingly low, it basically means there is nothing on the market for sale other than stale properties or unattractive properties."

 

The average paid for a single-family-dwelling across July's 396 sales was $1.17 million, a near 15% valuation rise compared to July of last year (averaged at $1.02 million) albeit a 29% fall in transactions year-over-year, and a 10% drop in transactions compared to June (which also coincided with a dip in prices from the latter month's record high $1.218 million average). The median price of single-family-homes hit a record high of $1.05 million. Condominiums, meanwhile, saw 284 sales amid an average paid of $545,548, or 13.5% above last July’s $480,614 average. In June condominiums sold for an average of $536,276

 

Townhomes continued their strong performance in 2021 with an average price of just over $741,000 to land in second place behind May's $752,313 record average. C

 

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