With a month remaining in 2021, British Columbia housing sales hit an all-time annual high in November as the number of homes for sale crashed to a record low, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association.
And early December data shows the trend has continued.
The average residential price in B.C. as of November 30 was $993,922, a 22.1 per cent increase from $814,310 recorded in November 2020. Total sales dollar volume was $9.1 billion, a 17.9 per cent increase from the same time last year.
By all accounts, the 2021 housing market is year of anomalies.
“Provincial home sales reached a new annual record in November with still one month to go in 2021,” said BCREA Chief Economist Brendon Ogmundson. “Home sales have already surpassed the previous annual record of 112,425 units set in 2016.”
Total active residential listings continue to tumbler lower, falling 39 per cent year-over-year to a record low for the province. Active listings are now about half of the level reached prior to the pandemic.
In Greater Vancouver, the average composite home price as of November had reached $1.24 million, up 14.6 per cent from a year earlier, while the average home price in the Fraser Valley surged 21.8 per cent to $1.10 million.
There appears no relief coming in December, according to mid-month data from the Real Estate Board of Vancouver.
As of December 15, new listings were at 1,482 which was down from the 2,142 at the mid-point of November and down from 1,566 at the mid-December 2020.
But this December, sales as of mid-month had reached 1,519 transactions, just slightly lower than at same point in November.
The sales-to-new-listing ratio, a key market metric, had hit 102 per cent as of December 15, real estate board data shows.
“This means that every listing that came on the market sold,” noted Kevin Skipworth, managing partner at Dexter Associates, a Vancouver real estate agency which released the early December data to Western Investor.
“Buyers continue to be active even as new listings drop off, as they typically do in December. The choice for buyers will be that much more strained,” Skipworth said, adding that multiple offers are now common across Greater Vancouver.
