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For 8 months in a row, the Fraser Valley Housing market has broken sales records for each of those given months. This has been driven by historically low interest rates, lack of homes available to purchase and a change in lifestyle due to the pandemic among many other factors.

It does appear as of now that things have begun to slow down a little bit, but a little bit slower than 200 km/h is still very fast and the market has certainly not come to a stop.

In my business, in particular, I have noticed that not as many homes are going to multiple offers and those that are going to multiple offers, are seeing fewer offers than they would have in February, March and the first half of April. This is likely because March and April 2021 saw 4,733 and 4,753 new listings respectively, which helped to build up the inventory of homes available to purchase, while sales in April 2021 were 2,870 which was less than March 2021’s 3,174 sales. More homes to choose from (6,030 which is the highest number of homes for sale since 6 months ago) with the same number of buyers means that more buyers will get into homes and prices will not likely spike up quite as quickly.

If you are thinking about making a move in the near future now would be a great time to do so. I hear many buyers tell me that they do not want to get into a multiple offer situation, but the reality is that there is still an opportunity to get a reasonable price on a home.  I wrote several deals for my buyer clients over the last couple of months and did not write a single subject free offer while still having 9 offers accepted with subjects. Put yourself in the mindset that if you do not write an offer at all there is no possibility of getting an accepted offer, but if you write an offer at a price that you are willing to pay for a given property you do have a chance. If someone else writes a higher offer then you are in the same position you would have been in without writing an offer at all, but at least you tried.

If you are thinking of selling any time soon, the window to get a great price on your home is certainly not closed. Pricing your home correctly is absolutely key in this kind of market, as overpriced homes end up sitting on the market for a long time and usually end up selling for less money than homes that are priced well. If your home is a very desirable home, slightly underpricing to get a multiple offer situation can still be a good strategy, but for the most part it is best to price your home at the market value as you will be telling buyers that you are expecting to work with a fair price and you will be much less likely to get lowball offers. After all, one strong offer is much better than ten lowball offers!

Of course if you are looking to sell in order to have the funds required to make your purchase into a new home it can be a little bit nerve racking. The recent shift with more homes available to purchase certainly does alleviate this to some degree, but the most important thing to keep in mind with this strategy is that the dates on the sale of your home have to give you ample time to find and secure your next home. I will of course be there with you every step of the way to provide guidance to put you in the best position to make everything happen with as little stress as possible.

Whether you are planning on getting ready to make a move in the next couple of weeks or maybe at some point in the next year, it is always best to start planning sooner than later. If you are thinking of making a move in the next year, be sure to get in touch soon so that we can start putting together a custom plan for your unique situation. I look forward to hearing from you soon!