Vancouver’s real estate market continued to be one of the most talked about topics in 2015. The federal election, raising the minimum down payment required, property assessment increases and just how foreign investors are impacting Vancouver housing market provided no end to areas of discussion.

December is notoriously a sluggish real estate month. North Vancouver had a significant drop in Units Listed from the previous month. November, 2015 had 108 units listed on the market as compared to 49 in December of 2015. Active Listings decreased 49% in the year from 165 to 83 from December, 2014 to December 2015. Price Index rose 26.6%   and the Average Price per Unit was up 17% from the previous year of $1,306,075 to $1,683,641.

The rapid rise of West Vancouver was highlighted by an enormous 99% increase of Gross Sales from the previous year. Gross Sales were $137,357,267 in December of 2014 and closed at $273,460,000 for December, 2015. In the past year (December 2014 to December 2015), Active Listings did dip 13% in West Vancouver from 326 to 282. The Average Price per unit closed at $3,798,055 for December, 2015 and that was up 22 % from the month prior when it was recorded at $3,124,170. West Vancouver had the highest Price Index increase, with a 28.6% growth for the year.

Vancouver Westside’s Active Listings were down 30% from one year ago in December and also were down 25% from just the previous month of November, 2015.  As previously mentioned, December is traditionally a slower real estate month but that did not hamper the 13% increase of Units Sold Year to Date.  1782 units were sold as of December 2014 and 2031 were sold as of December 2015.  The Average Price per unit for Vancouver West was $3,336,869 which was surprisingly up a mere 2% from one year ago which sat at $3,242,879.

With sales to active listings ratio of above 25% in most of the local markets, much of the year was undoubtedly identified as a sellers’ market. The total number of homes listed for sale in 2015 ranked fifth in the last ten years, while the MLS Home Price Index (HPI) saw double-digit year-over-year value increases.  Every indication keeps pointing us to a strong market in 2016. The Market Overview below is a more detailed understanding on just how North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Vancouver Westside have been doing.

Have a look and if you are interested in buying or selling your home, I’d love to help.

MARKET OVERVIEW: Residential Detached