Hey Fish, any data from the Okanagan and Sunshine Coast for December?
Totals include variables in any given, due to preceding month's collapsed sales and deleted listings. e & oe
ResidentialCondo/Apt
Sales 31 New Listings 87 Current Inventory 766 Sell/Inv. Ratio 4.05% Days to Sell 166 Average Price $196,066 Median Price $186,500
Condo/Townhouse
Sales 21 New Listings 51 Current Inventory 389 Sell/Inv. Ratio 5.40% Days to Sell 121 Average Price $324,183 Median Price $310,000
Lots
Sales 6 New Listings 43 Current Inventory 541 Sell/Inv. Ratio 1.11% Days to Sell 197 Average Price $297,300 Median Price $242,899
Residential
Sales 96 New Listings 179 Current Inventory 1,138 Sell/Inv. Ratio 8.44% Days to Sell 108 Average Price $451,130 Median Price $424,625
Ratio of Sales vs Inventory 5.43%
You don't need me to tell you that those sell/list ratios add up to enormous MOIs which can only be resolved by more buying or a sellers strike.
They don't have December 2010's numbers up (I couldn't find them anyway) but there are big drops compared with January 2011 prices. December is an oddity, so we won't say that the OK is crashing....yet... just that it is under some 'price pressure'.
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Here are some nice graphs from Victoria
SFH average prices are now under December 2009 levels and Townhomes are really in a down-trend.
As for the Sunshine Coast. Almost no SFH sales in December - barely into double digits - while 390 sit on the books. However it was December, so volume is expected to be light. A single solitary SFH sale so far in 2012. (note my Sunshine Coast analysis ends at Pender Harbour /Egmont)
"Some feel that the Chinese are to blame for the hefty price tags on Vancouver homes. Recent economic prosperity in China has led to the emergence of a huge class of ‘new rich’ and they are buying up Canadian real estate, sight unseen, to the chagrin of many.
And yet, Canadians are doing the exact same thing in the States, in places like Las Vegas, Florida and Arizona. The economic fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis combined with the overall tightening of US credit markets has led to a dramatic drop in real estate prices. The bottom line: American real estate is an accessible and potentially lucrative investment and many Canadians are already taking advantage of the opportunity.
If a house is for sale, whether it be in Arizona or Vancouver, and somebody has the money to buy it, should it matter where they come from?"
My response is simple.
Two wrongs do not make a right. If Canadians are buying in Arizona and Florida, and pricing out the local people who work and pay taxes and are policemen and nurses and firemen all the other professions whom we rely on for a civilized society- better still they are not even corrupt- then yes it is a bad thing.
However the prices in those areas have been in free-fall and the economy stinks so our money is actually benefitting everyone. Not so here. The short term benefit of a massive transfer of wealth to a few people, while the rest are under significant housing pressure is not welcome.
There are many desirable countries who DO limit foreign or investor ownership of their housing stock and somehow manage to make a big profit on those who still insist on coming.
Look at Singapore. A small industrious tax-haven with limited land, where many wealthy (especially Chinese and Europeans) want to own and live. They have set aside certain areas where investors from off-shore can buy lots and build. The price of buying is MANY time the costs of lots in the local area and the homes built must be of a certain size and cost. I believe the land is even sold with long leases and not freehold, and yet they are selling.
No extra benefits come with this land ownership like free healthcare or education or passports. It is a simple investment.
Now lets look at the us: for the price of a home, we allow all the above benefits and allow our city to be socially destabilized. Who is going to change the regulations here? No one.
Are we doing this in Arizona? Of course not, they would love us to go down there buy and get sick, and spend many thousands on the hospital bill, and forget passports- the border guard may not like the look of you and you cannot even go to your new investment.
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If Mr Good had spent a bit more time researching, he would find a better example to compare to the Chinese buying everything here. Costa Rica. I was down there 6 years ago and the Americans and Canadians owned nearly every piece of waterfront. The locals just could not compete with our money. Blue collar workers were outbidding local Doctors and Lawyers. There were no regulations to prevent this.
The result was that even though everyone knew the foreign money brought lots of jobs with the new developments (mostly low paying) - I heard a lot of resentment towards the new land-owning class.
Although 2011 ranks the third slowest year for sales in Fraser Valley since 2002, it was only 10 per cent less than the 10‐year average of 17,210 sales. The volume of new listings received in 2011 was 6 per cent more than the 10‐year average of 29,867 new listings, placing last year third in ranking since 2002.
Sidhu adds, “One trend from 2011 that is clear was the preference for single family homes. For the most part in our region, both sales and prices of townhomes and condos either stayed on par with 2010 or decreased.”
In December, the benchmark price of a detached home in the Fraser Valley was $522,998, an increase of 3.3 per cent compared to $506,145 in December 2010 and a decrease of 1.7 per cent compared to November.
For townhouses, the benchmark price in December was $315,330, a decrease of 2.1 per cent compared to the same month last year when it was $322,054 and down 3.8 per cent compared to November. The benchmark price of apartments in December was $237,285, a decrease of 1.2 per cent compared to December 2010 and a decrease of 0.5 per cent compared to November.
Average prices year over year show detached homes up 9.1 per cent – $610,269 in 2011 compared to $559,456 in 2010. The average price of townhomes increased by 2.6 per cent, going from $336,484 in 2010 to $345,138 in 2011 and the average price of apartments increased by 0.9 per cent going from $223,910 in 2010 to $225,976 in 2011.
"British Columbia is forecast to have it worse, said senior economist Jacques Marcil, and will likely see "a signifcant correction" this year. Indeed, he said in a report today, the Vancouver market likely peaked last year."
Good ol'Larry out with the numbers asap and we are down significantly on the average price.
