It may be less exciting than the record-setting year of 2016, but the capital region’s real estate market continued to grow steadily through the first half of 2017, according to numbers released today by the Victoria Real Estate Board.
“People are getting used to this new tempo of brisk sales,” said VREB president Ara Balabanian. “However, when we look at the longer term numbers, we’re in a very active market.”
There were 1,008 properties that changed hands last month, and while that was down from the 1,174 sold in June of last year, it was well over the 10-year monthly average of 798 sales.
“If we remove 2016 sales, this June would have been the record breaker,” said Balabanian.
There were 1,915 active listings for sale at the end of June, a slight increase from May, but 16.3 per cent below the number of available properties listed at this time last year.
“The good news for buyers is that inventory is slowly starting to build, but buyers can still anticipate multiple offer scenarios in certain high-demand neighbourhoods where inventory is being bought at a more rapid pace,” said Balabanian.
The benchmark value for a single-family home in the Victoria core increased by 15.1 per cent to $829,600 in June, compared with $721,000 last year.
