Although it was certainly a quieter holiday period than most people have experienced in recent years we hope that with the vaccine roll out things will be looking brighter for later this year.
The second half of 2020 was certainly a very busy time for real estate and it looks like this has carried on into the new year, if the first few weeks are an indication. We are seeing a shortage of properties for sale compared with the number of buyers that are looking. If you look at the graphs comparing sales with active listings this indicates that we do not have enough properties for sale to meet the demand. This is confirmed as it matches the drop shown on the months of inventory graph, this shows us that if no new homes were listed at the current rate of sales we would run out of inventory in just over a month - indicating we are in a sellers market. This has pushed prices higher throughout the year as you can see the median price in Nanaimo for December is approximately $100,000 higher than it was in January and for Parksville/Qualicum it is approximately $150,000 higher.
Extremely low interest rates have certainly been a factor in this busy real estate market and these are likely to remain low as this is a way to spur on economic growth and no government wants to be seen to be putting in a roadblock to this in the current world climate. However, how much of a contributing factor Covid-19 been to the market is more difficult to quantify. With more people working remotely from home (and likely to continue doing so), our location being a very desirable place to live and our property prices still being attractive when compared with some other communities, could mean we may not see any respite for the market. That being said it is always very difficult to predict what is around the corner as a year ago I'm sure no one saw what was ahead. However, whatever happens to the real estate market over the coming months I am always here to answer any property or market questions you may have.
Real Estate Statistics for December 2020
Synopsis for Nanaimo
The graphs below show the median sold price, sold numbers and number of new listings since the beginning of each year (freehold homes only.)
Median Sold Price:
Sold Numbers:
Number of new listings:
The following graphs shows the % difference of the housing price index (HPI) from the same month 12 months ago. It is split into the different sub-areas (the overall figure for Nanaimo is on the left of the graph) and is for single family homes.
The following graphs are for Nanaimo and show the sales numbers against new listings and sales numbers against total active listings. This is helpful to show how the market is doing as the closer the 2 lines come together on each graph generally indicates a busy active market.
The following graph is for Nanaimo and shows the months of inventory. This is the time it would take the current freehold, single family homes for sale, to sell, if no new homes were listed, which indicates whether we have a sellers, balanced or buyers’ market.
These figures do concentrate on single family homes but if you would like similar information for other property types, such as apartments or patio homes, or specific geographical areas of Nanaimo or Parksville/Qualicum, then I would be more than happy to discuss those with you as well.
As always I hope you find these monthly newsletters informative and if at any time you or any of your friends, relatives or co-workers are looking for a professional realtor to help them buy or sell a home, or just have a real estate question, please call my personal cell, 250-739-1228, or drop me an email.
Thank you,
Ian
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