“I have been eagerly awaiting this month’s statistics to see what sort of bounce back, if any, we would see after the slower Summer season. The answer, somewhat surprisingly, is that the we didn’t seen any bounce back in sales activity at all – in any of the neighbourhoods we look at. The degree of sales drop varies quite a bit, with more than 30% drops in sales activity in the Downtown, Vancouver Westside attached and detached, and North Vancouver attached markets compared to just 6.7% in the Vancouver East attached market and 16.6% in the Vancouver East detached market. Interestingly enough, this decreased sales activity has not really impacted sales prices as both the average and median prices in most markets held relatively stable. We have also not seen a dramatic spike in listing inventories. Should listing inventory start to rise in October, we may be looking at some minor slips on the pricing side. It is my belief, however, that the commitment to hold interest rates until 2013, in conjunction with positive employment and immigration numbers, should keep prices steady through to next year.”
- Realtor Rob Zwick, ‘Market Update’, Oct 2011, at robzwick.com [hat-tip Al]
A topping process will begin with a drop in sales. -ed.
Lol “soft landing”.
“hold interest rates until 2013″
Wrong country, but nice effort.
Sales are up YOY. Sounds to me like too many dogs are fighting over too little meat.
My wife and I know 3 realtors and they all say it is really slow. One of them hasn’t sold a home since April 2011. So don’t believe the crap that homes are still selling. It is really slow, I’m seeing price drops of 30K-100K, interior photos of too many vacant homes for sale, and realtor remarks such as: Motivated Seller or Willing to accept any reasonable offer. My thoughts: I am an unmotivated buyer and not willing to accept any of these unreasonable asking prices.
“I am an unmotivated buyer and not willing to accept any of these unreasonable asking prices.”
You and me both!
“So don’t believe the crap that homes are still selling.”
Not to quibble, but they should be comparing year-on-year sales numbers. By those measures things are not “slow”, especially compared to the early part of last decade and 2008. Things, perhaps, are much slower than the frenzy of March-May of this year. And there are more listings to manage for Realtors. And perhaps there are now more Realtors becoming active in the market eating each other’s lunches. And maybe some neighbourhoods and sectors are slower than others. So from a particular Realtor’s point of view it may indeed be “slow” but from 30,000 feet this is simply not the case.
October sales are on pace to be higher than 2010.
“Motivated Seller or Willing to accept any reasonable offer. My thoughts: I am an unmotivated buyer and not willing to accept any of these unreasonable asking prices.”
Good one.