Ron's Candid Comments on Victoria Real Estate Market April 2014

The market has warmed up with the spring weather and new listings are popping up nearly as fast as the flowers, however, the number of total listings continues to track downwards from the peak in Spring 2013 now at 4050 listings at the end of March this year compared to 4333 at the end of March last year. The number of sales continues to track substantially higher than this time last year with 575 total sales on MLS this March for Greater Victoria but is still short of the five year average sales volume and hasn’t been enough to shrink our inventory which has been hovering around a 9-10 month supply for almost a year now. While the market is brisk for premium properties and in some more popular areas, marginal properties and those in less desirable and more rural areas continue to see little activity. March 2014 real estate activity in Victoria Victoria BC - The Victoria Real Estate Board today released its monthly report on real estate activity in the Victoria area for March 2014. 575 properties sold in the month of March 2014, compared to 483 in March 2013 - an increase of nearly 20% year over year. However, the average sales for the month of March over the past five years is 607 properties per month, so though 2014 is stronger than the year previous, sales have not yet returned to the longer term average. Victoria Real Estate Board President says, "This time last year sales weren't outstanding - the market was sluggish. Tightened mortgage amortization rules resulted in slower sales as buyers adjusted to the new requirements. Property values were stable, but inventory didn't move quickly. This year we see more sales than last March." The Victoria Real Estate Board uses the MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI) to report on property values. The MLS® HPI uses the concept of a benchmark home, a notional home with common attributes of typical homes in a defined area. Through the analysis of ten years of Victoria Real Estate Board MLS® sales data, the MLS® HPI defined benchmark homes for Victoria in each category (single family homes, townhouses, condos) and for each neighborhood. The benchmark starting point was 2005, where each type of property and neighborhood was assigned an index value of 100. Current MLS® HPI composite (inclusive of all single family homes, condos and townhomes sales) for the Victoria Real Estate Board area is 139.3 - compared to 139.1 this time last year. While these overall numbers indicate little change in the last 12 months, some areas have changed more than others. Local REALTORS® can interpret what this means to specific neighborhoods in the region. President Tim explains what this means to the local market, "The stable property values year over year, along with the strong inventory of properties we see for sale shows that we have returned to balanced market conditions. There is no extreme upward or downward pressure on housing prices right now. This stability in value combined with the new lower interest rates we see from some lenders may move a lot more buyers into the Victoria and area housing market."