Everyone Is Waiting for the Housing Market to Tell Them What to Do

There is something interesting happening in Metro Vancouver real estate right now.

Everyone seems to be waiting.

Buyers are waiting for prices to fall further.

Sellers are waiting for demand to return.

And plenty of people are waiting for another major drop in mortgage rates.

But sometimes the opportunity isn't in predicting what happens next. It's in recognizing what's already happening.

Metro Vancouver finished July with more than 16,000 properties available for sale. That's roughly 27% above the region's 10-year seasonal average.

Sales, meanwhile, were almost 19% below the 10-year average.

For buyers, that creates something we haven't always had in Vancouver:

time.

Time to compare properties.

Time to conduct proper due diligence.

And, on some properties, time to negotiate.

Interestingly, though, sellers may already be responding. New listings in July fell 11.5% compared with last year.

That's why I wouldn't automatically assume today's inventory levels will continue indefinitely.

Now cross over to Vancouver Island and we have another example of why broad housing headlines aren't terribly useful.

VIREB recorded fewer sales in July, but active inventory was only 2% higher than last year.

For someone considering selling in Greater Vancouver and moving to Parksville, Qualicum Beach or Nanaimo, you're therefore dealing with two markets simultaneously.

Your question shouldn't simply be:

“Should I wait until Vancouver prices recover?”

It should be:

“What does my equity buy me today — and does that move improve my life?”

That's a completely different conversation.

And it's also something I talk about constantly when coaching real estate agents.

Our value isn't in reading statistics to clients. They can Google statistics.

Our value is understanding what those numbers mean for the person sitting across the table from us.

Whether I'm advising someone moving across the Strait or coaching an agent on becoming the authority in their market, that's the job:

Know the numbers. Interpret them. Then help people make better decisions.