July was anything but boring in Metro Vancouver real estate. Listings jumped, inventory stacked up, and even a drop in interest rates wasn’t enough to get buyers off the fence. Here’s how things really played out last month, and what it might mean for the next season.
If you drove around town in July, you probably saw a bunch of new ‘For Sale’ signs. Sellers were busy, putting about 5,600 homes on the MLS®—that’s a 20% increase compared to July last year. By month’s end, there were roughly 14,300 homes for sale across Metro Vancouver, which is a lot more than what’s average for this month.
You’d think a small interest rate cut would stir things up, but buyers didn’t budge much. Only 2,333 homes sold, which is a 5% drop from last year. So despite more choices, most buyers kept waiting.
Why? Could be decision fatigue from last year’s wild prices, or maybe everyone’s just waiting to see if rates fall even more. Either way, houses aren’t flying off the market like they used to.
This number tells you if it’s a buyer’s or seller’s market. Here’s how the ratios looked in July:
Historically, if the ratio drops below 12% for a while, prices tend to go down. Over 20%? Sellers get the upper hand, and prices can rise. July hovered nicely in the “balanced” sweet spot—so we didn’t see any wild price changes.
Overall, prices saw a small slide. The MLS® HPI Benchmark for all housing types in Metro Vancouver in July was $1,198,000—about 1% lower than last year. Here’s the breakdown by type:
Price drops weren’t huge, and month-to-month changes were pretty tame across the board.
Now the big question: Will the slowdown in prices and better borrowing rates finally make buyers jump in when fall comes? Hard to say. Sometimes these changes take a while to sink in. So if you’re thinking of buying, selling, or just waiting it out, keep an eye on how these trends play out in the next couple of months.
If you want to geek out on more housing stats, you can check the market watch section on the Greater Vancouver Realtors® website.