November 2020, much like the two months before was yet another record breaking month for both the number of sales and detached home prices in the Fraser Valley. 

With 2,048 sales November 2020 outperformed the 10 year average for the month of November by 76% and saw 734 more sales than November 2019. While this is down from October 2020’s 2,226 sales, this is expected as November has never outperformed October in number of sales.

The average HPI house price in the Fraser valley is nearing June 2018’s high point of $885,300 but is not quite there yet as townhomes and condos have not been seeing the same price increases as detached homes have. Detached homes are at their highest average price ever with and HPI average of $1,061,500.

To add to the craziness of this market it should also be noted that 41 out of every 100 homes listed in November 2020 sold. Townhomes sold at the highest rate with 54 out of every 100 homes, with detached homes right behind at 49%.  While condos were not performing quite as high as townhouses and detached homes, 27 out of every 100 condos listed is not a low number by any means. 

All of these number that we just discussed would normally lead one to believe that prices should be skyrocketing upwards, and homes should be selling within minutes of being listed, however that has not been the case, and I would speculate that it will not become the case either.  The average number of days for a home to sell is at 32 days, and this is significant as it tells us that buyers are not panic buying like they did in the 2016-2018 craze that we just went through. This does not mean that all homes are taking 32 days to sell of course and multiple offer situations do still exist, but the average buyer is having ample time to make an offer and really think things through before doing so. 

If you are thinking of selling and not planning on buying anything else, now is probably one of the best times in recent history to do so with the demand that buyers are putting out there.  If you have a home to sell and are also planning on buying another home, now is also a great time for that.  Like I just mentioned above, selling for a great price is quite likely with the activity that we have been seeing, and unlike a couple years ago, you will have plenty of homes to choose from as well as time to make a decision on the home that you want to move in to.

If you are a first time buyer, or looking to purchase an investment property, I also think it is a reasonably good time to purchase. There is of course some long term uncertainty into the state of the economy due to everything that is happening in the world, but one thing that many people seem to have forgotten during the 2008 recession is that in normal economic recessions, real estate will often perform very well. While stocks and bonds are just pieces of paper that represent ownership in a business, real estate has real assets attached to it. The 2008 recession was cause by the housing market and of course home prices dropped because of that, but this recession and most recessions before 2008 did in fact see real estate prices come out higher once the economy recovered than going in to said recession. With that in mind, I would predict that prices are likely to stay quite close to where they are today for the next few years. I would not be surprised to see values increase at a typical amount of around 4% per year which should outperform inflation making real estate likely a safe place to park your money.

Despite these crazy times we are in, now is as good a time as any, and probably better than most, to have your home help you increase your overall wealth. Whether you are buying, selling, or both, I think now is a great time to do so. If the though has even crossed your mind recently, be sure to get in touch so we can start planning soon!