Ron's Candid Comments on the Victoria Real Estate Market for March 2017

Last week I had the awesome privilege and pleasure of joining thousands RE/MAX Colleagues in Las Vegas, hundreds of them now long time great friends, for our annual international conference. As always it was a week of celebration, inspiration, learning and networking with the best of the best from the more than 100 countries with representation by RE/MAX globally. I also had the good fortune to bring several of our team down for a weekend of celebration and to join me on stage for recognition as a Top RE/MAX Team in our global network.

The highlight of the week for me listening to Erik Weihenmayer, one of our keynote speakers. Erik is an adventurer with a difference. He has climbed the highest seven peaks of the seven continents, including Mt Everest. He has white water rafted the Grand Canyon, including Lava Falls. He’s legally blind.

 This guy is inspiring! Also exciting was learning new leading edge marketing and negotiating techniques that raise the bar and give our buying and selling clients an almost unfair advantages over the competition! Exchanging referrals with trusted colleagues is another massive part of participating in our global network which our clients benefit from on a frequent and regular basis.

The topic of market conditions and values is frequently raised in discussion and this time was no different. With all the talk of a “real estate bubble” it was interesting to hear from others in various markets and reassuring to reaffirm just how cheap our prices are on a global scale. The simple fact is that relative to average family income, real estate values is Victoria are less than half of Vancouver’s, about a quarter of downtown New York and about a sixth of London, Bejing and Hong Kong. On top of that, we still live in the best place on earth!

Locally we continue to experience an undersupplied market which dramatically favours sellers over buyers. Put in perspective, there were still more licensed Realtors in Victoria than properties for sale with fewer than 1,200 residential listings at the end of February 2017. The lack of inventory is resulted in fewer sales being reported with just 675 sold last month down 12.6% from the 772 in February 2016. Our team has bucked that trend with a 27.7% increase in sales over the first two months of last year.  It’s still normal when priced “reasonably” to expect competing bids and to sell over asking price. Our clients are benefiting from our expertise and important strategies designed to maximize your outcome as a seller or to maximize your opportunity without overpaying as a buyer.

Over the past year the benchmark price for single family homes in Victoria’s core have increased by 21.3% from $638,700 to now $775,000. The average price of a downtown Victoria condo with 970 square feet sold in the past 60 days was just $468,671 or just 5.42X the 2014 census Victoria average household income of $86,430

It’s important to understand that prices are changing at different rates for different property types, neighbourhoods and price ranges. For direct personal access and regular updates on activity in your Greater Victoria neighbourhood, please Register For Our FREE Market Snapshot. If you’re considering buying and/or selling now or in the near future, please contact us for a FREE no-obligation consultation.

 Ron Neal and The Neal Estate Team
Victoria’s Real Estate Experts
“Go with those who know”