Category: Real Estate Updates

The market remains strong with continued low levels of inventory on Vancouver Island. According to VIREB, in the month January, 245 single-family homes sold on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System compared to 258 last January, a decrease of five per cent.

In October around 399 single-family homes sold on the MLS® System in the Vancouver Island Real Estate board, compared to 368 last October, an increase of eight per cent. Month over month, sales decreased by 24 per cent from September, which saw 528 unit sales. Nanaimo completed 114 of those sales, and is up about 20% over last year in sales. The reduced sales activity in October is likely caused by typical late-summer cooling and continuing low inventory challenges. Active listings of single-family homes dropped once again in October, dipping to 1,158, the lowest VIREB has seen since the board began tracking inventory levels in 1999.

You’ve heard of all the wonderful, futuristic things virtual reality can do, but did you ever think it could be used to sell your very own home.

The report notes that MLS® residential sales in the province are forecast to climb 10.4 per cent. The August 2016 benchmark price of a single-family home in the VIREB area was $384,000, up 13.23 per cent from one year ago. Prices increased in every zone, ranging from 9 per cent in Port Alberni to 16 per cent in Nanaimo and 17 per cent in the Parksville-Qualicum area. You can see by the attached Nanaimo graph that we had a slight increase in August.

Now that the provincial government has given Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson the green light to impose a tax on empty homes, we await the details of its implementation.

Nanaimos housing market started 2016 with strong sales, continuing the momentum created in the last quarter of 2015.