The VREB noticed an increase in sales from last month, which may surprise some people as the yearly trend continues to fall

The number of home sales across Greater Victoria continues to drop when compared to monthly figures from 2017, but October saw a bump when compared to previous month-over-month sales figures.

Just under 600 properties changed hands in the Victoria Real Estate Board region last month, which is 10 per cent fewer than October 2017, but the 598 properties sold were 12.2 per cent more than September 2018.

Condo sales made up the majority of this spike from Sept to Oct 2018, with 20.8 per cent of sales. Single family homes only made up 1.4 per cent of the rise.

“We continue to see the housing market shift into a more balanced state, though the trajectory is not smooth,” says Victoria Real Estate Board President Kyle Kerr.

“This month had slower sales compared to last year and a slightly lower level of inventory coming into the market, but it also had an increase in sales from last month, which may surprise some people. The moderating changes over last year have been punctuated with some competition and price pressure on lower and mid-priced homes while the upper end of the market has softened slightly. Right now pricing is key across all segments as we transition to a more balanced market.”

The amount of active listing at the end of October 2018 represented a 31.8 per cent increase in inventory compared to Oct. 2017, which Kerr says could be caused by new mortgage lending requirements.

“Lending was made tougher to dampen the market and these measures have certainly had an impact on purchasing power,” Kerr noted.

“The threat of the looming Speculation and Vacancy tax has also cooled development in our area, which is unfortunate because the only way to create affordable homes in our area is to build them. We hope that moving forward the municipal, provincial and federal governments will work collaboratively to enable more supply at all levels of housing by funding public / private partnerships to support the increase of home stock in our area. We hope that aside from taxation and mortgage rules, governments will work together to ensure a future supply in our area to stabilize prices in the long term.”

The average current price of a home in Greater Victoria last month was $881,000 – an increase of 6 per cent compared to the same time last year. The average price for a condo in the Victoria core last month was $502,600 – an increase of almost 10 per cent from October 2017.

Source: Ragnar Haagen, Nov. 2, 2018, Oak Bay News