Greater Vancouver Real Estate - The past 2 months

Here is a little update on how the Greater Vancouver residential real estate is holding up for the past 2 months.

• GREATER VANCOUVER (Active - 7970 Sold - 708)


• Vancouver West (Active - 971 Sold -68)


• Vancouver East (Active - 950 Sold -106)


• Richmond (Active - 928 Sold - 70)


• West Vancouver (Active - 546 Sold -30)


• North Vancouver (Active - 444 Sold - 116)


• Burnaby (Active - 661 Sold - 95)

I have only listed the data of the main cities.

Based on the data, Vancouver West, West Vancouver and Richmond are among those with less than 10% of its active being sold in a two months period. While Vancouver West and West Vancouver are among the higher ends in the millions range, their owners are less compelled to sell during times of turmoils compared to those who are servicing home loans. What concerns me more is Richmond which has an abundance of overvalued new highrises. Taken into consideration that a lot of the past demand was built of speculation, Richmond's real estate does not look promising in the least bit.

North Vancouver and Burnaby experienced comparatively higher sold to active percentage as they are in the low to mid-range pricing and first time buyers are taking the reduced prices as an opportunity.

Now let's examine the numbers for two prestigious subareas - South Granville and Shaunessy. South Granville has a total of 3 sales and 126 listings. Shaunessy has a total of 6 sales out of 76 listings

With a lot of beautiful homes on the market, the low sales number suggest that despite whatever impulse you may have to go for the purchase, most people are just sitting on the sidelines worrying about the economy and anticipating further price drops.

For the complete statistics package for October, click on the following link: October Stats.

Paul B also has RE market comprehensive data compiled: Real Estate Data

Take note that sales in October dropped off sharply mid-month when the financial crisis became big news meaning that almost all sales recorded for October were at pre-crisis prices.

Vancouver Suns also has an article today on "Depreciation of condos expected to exceed that of suburbs".