After dropping off in latter part of 2004, home sales surging ahead
Michael McCullough
Sun
CREDIT: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun Real estate agent Lorne Goldman recently sold this west-side house for $112,000 more than the asking price.
After a seven-month pause to catch its breath, the real estate market has turned “absolutely kooky” again, in the words of one Vancouver realtor.
Last month, Lorne Goldman of McDonald Realtors Lorne Goldman Ltd. sold a house on West 41st Avenue in Vancouver for $112,000 or 16 per cent, over the asking price.
And in late January, he sold a house near Jericho Beach for $101,000 — 10 per cent –over list.
“Suddenly, in the second week of January, everyone said, ‘Let’s go buy some real estate’,” Goldman said.
After dropping off in the second half of 2004, housing sales and prices are surging ahead again in the Lower Mainland, with multiple-offer scenarios common for the most prized property types in certain neighbourhoods. West-side character homes are definitely among these.
The trend is borne out in March sales statistics released by the region’s two main real estate boards Monday.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver recorded 3,938 sales in March, 10 per cent shy of the same month a year earlier, but still the second highest monthly total in the past 10 years.
The benchmark price for a detached house, calculated by the board’s housing price index, rose 7.7 per cent to $503,141.
The benchmark townhouse increased 10.9 per cent to $319,756, while condominiums rose 11.1 per cent to a $248,762 benchmark.
The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board recorded 1,922 sales in March, down nine per cent from last year’s record 2,107 transactions.
The average price of a single-family home rose 8.6 per cent year-over-year to $370,661. Apartments and townhouses both rose in value around 13 per cent to $146,362 and $236,998, respectively.
A national survey by Royal Lepage Real Estate Services, also released Monday, showed healthy appreciation for all housing types across the region between the first quarter of 2004 and the same period in 2005. But the biggest increases came at the affordable end of the spectrum.
While the value of a standard condo rose 13.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2005 versus 2004, a standard two-storey house increased just 8.5 per cent, Royal LePage said. Some of the best investments were condos in Victoria and on Vancouver‘s east side, increasing in value 28.2 and 27.2 per cent, respectively.
The most frenzied bidding this spring, seems to be taking place in the priciest and most sought-after locations.
“In neighbourhoods such as Yaletown in downtown Vancouver, some well-priced listings were sold the same day as listed, with multiple offers put forward,” the Royal LePage report said.
“People are prepared to pay a significant amount of money to be in good school districts,” said Goldman. Though prices are sky-high on the west side, buyers are confident their purchase will look good six months or a year from now, he said.
At the same time, the supply in certain areas is severely limited. Potential vendors may be afraid to sell without having a place to move to, Goldman said, noting there are just 448 detached houses for sale on the west side as of Monday. By comparison the average at this time of year (over the past decade) is 1,015. Back in April of 1998 buyers had 1,291 west-side houses to choose from.
Goldman put the 41st Avenue house, an old-timer that he believes needed another $100,000 worth of renovations, on the market for $689,000. There were 10 offers, he said, including four with no subjects that had done full inspections by the submission date. The successful bid came in at $801,072.
The Jericho house, on Blenheim Street, was listed for $999,000 and sold in a similar fashion for $1.1 million.
“The multiple offer situations are stretching into different price ranges,” Goldman said. Plus the entry-level price on the west side has reached a higher plane, with just 17 detached homes now listed for less than $600,000.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
