Spring Market Update 2021

It was one of the busiest February on record for Victoria’s real estate market with 836 unconditional and completed sales.

That shatters the previous all-time record which was 780 sales in 1992. Runner-up was 772 sales in 2016.

Record High Prices & Purchasing Activity

We’ll Victoria ignored it’s winter hibernation this year. Real estate buyers were out in droves all winter, and continue to prop up the market to new heights.

Demand is exceptionally strong, which is further confirmed by year over year price growth remains well above historic averages.

The average price for a single family detached home remains at $1,221,000 – which is remarkably higher than the $912,000 average price in February of 2020 (pre covid). The single family home market breezed past the 1 million mark in June of 2020, and hasn’t slowed down. Prices will sustain themselves because there are fewer than 400 single family homes available across the entire system. In a typical year we will see the most amount of inventory go online in April and May, but if the current trend continues, we will see only around half of the number of new listings compared to what was normally seen in the past.

The average prices have been propped up by a strong luxury market. February saw 30 homes sell for over $2M – with 12 of those going for at or above asking price. One luxury equestrian estate was listed at $6M and still sold for $155k over asking. There were even 3 condos sales for over $2M – one of which was the penthouse at Hudson Place One – the tallest building in Victoria.

Condominium prices hit an average of $535,500 this month, inching up from the slowly from the $524,000 average price last year. There are approx. 437 active condominium listings across the region, which is also far below our 10 year average. That means there is less than 2 month of inventory. On the Westshore, condo’s are selling within the first week on market, and in the Victoria core area they are selling within 2 – 3 weeks, a little bit slower.

There were approx. 350 new condo listings that came online this month, but the majority of them got absorbed by this insatiable marketplace. It is interesting to note that the newly completed Yates on Yates building has 14 active listings, but not one of them has sold in the past 2 months.

So here’s what you expect in today’s market.

• Mob like numbers of people showing up and scheduling tours of new listings.

• Multiple offer situations on nearly all properties, regardless of price point.

• Bully offers being submitted within hours of the property being listed

• Non-refundable earnest monies made directly available to Sellers.

• Waiving all buyer protection contingencies.

• Buyer’s making up the difference in the inevitable low appraisal situations.

If you’re a Seller – it’s the perfect time to take advantage of the heavily depleted market.

If you’re a buyer – you don’t want to miss the super low interest rates.

The post Spring Market Update 2021 appeared first on Victoria Real Estate Agent.