Metro Vancouver Real Estate Market At Risk?

MLS data shows that the real estate market of Vancouver is about to witness a major setback, as prices continue to drop drastically. However, experts say we shouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet.

Although August is definitely the slowest month for sales this year, records from MLS show that sales data within the first two weeks of the month shows what many have been hoping for during the last few years of escalating prices.

Within the first two weeks of August, only three houses were bought in West Vancouver this year. This is a huge loss compared to last year, as the amount of houses sold were up to 52, which is a 94% drop.

These records come from Brent Eilers, a long-time realtor who’s dedicated his life to studying and analyzing the market, as well as tracking the market activities in the region. Eilers has been in the game since 1983.

“It’s pretty tough to go from 52 to three and pretend things are fine,” said Eilers. “That is a pattern that can’t go ignored.”

Brent also added that he’s been trying to warn the market of a slow-down in 2015. Eilers was well aware of the insane prices houses were going at, and found enough reason to believe the market would be in serious trouble.

According to the District of West Vancouver, the average household income in the region was $84,345 in 2011.

“The market in West Van is up 450 per cent since 2001. So is everyone making 600 per cent more income than they were so they can pay their taxes and buy their houses? Of course not. So how is this inflation been financed? By off-shore money and record debt.”

Andy Yan, acting director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University, says we need more time.

“It’s really hard to say if it’s just cooling off. It could be that everybody who could or would buy at those really high prices a couple months ago are now already in, and now we just really see how the market is retracting itself,” he said.