Ron Neal's Candid Thoughts on the Victoria Real Estate Market for September 2015

The Victoria real estate market remained sizzling hot through September and summer’s end and has continued into the start of fall with 704 sales in September 2015, up from 565 in September of 2014 and only 10 fewer than May 2015’s 714. There were 962 new listings for the month and the overall supply available dropped to a new low of just 3,478 listings, down 5.7% from last month and 18.2% from the same month last year. Overall we remain in an overall strong seller’s market with demand exceeding supply and less than a 5 month overall supply of listings.

While the natural result of this under supply is rising prices, which we have experienced in general, the changes are inconsistent through our marketplace The imbalance is strongly tipped in seller’s favour but continues to vary significantly by property type, area and price range as do the resulting changes in values.

The HPI (Housing Price Index) for SFD (Single Family Dwellings) in Victoria’s core increased 8.7% to $607,100 from $558,600 a year ago but only 1.2% in Westshore up to $515,900 from $481,900. The benchmark HPI for Condos throughout Greater Victoria are up 5.1% to $301,900 from $287,900 from a year ago, but again there are significant variations by price range, size and location. Townhomes didn’t change much at all with the benchmark shifting just 0.6% from $400,600 to $403,200.

This strong demand continues to be fueled by investors, first time buyers and local move up and downsizing buyers together with many newcomers to our market from the lower mainland, up island, Alberta and the rest of Canada and also international immigrants. In my view with the overall shortage of listings and buyers competing for them, we can continue to expect upward pressure on prices, particularly single family along the eastern side of Greater Victoria from Fairfield, Rockland and Fernwood through to Oak Bay and Saanich East especially in the mid-range and also premium properties.

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For full VREB (Victoria Real Estate Board) statistical reports click here.