Home sales and listings activity in June continued to trend upwards towards typical historical levels.
Since the initial impact when the pandemic started here in BC, both home buyers and sellers have gradually been increasing activity each month. Home sales saw a 17.6 % increase from June 2019 and a 64.5 % increase from May 2020. To keep this in context, June sales were still 21.9% below the ten-year June average but the gap is closing each month.
Buyers have become more comfortable with the new protocols when it comes to finding a home. Realtors are putting more emphasis on encouraging prescreening methods like reviewing virtual tours and driving thru neighborhoods before physically viewing a home. Social distancing and wearing mask are also part of the new normal. With these precautions in place and registration of participants, Open Houses are also starting up again in a more controlled manner.
New Listings were up 21.8 % when compared with June 2019 and 57.1 % up when compared to May 2020.
The sales to active listings ratio for all property types in June is 21.4 % and analysts say that when the ratio exceeds 20 % for several months we typically see a steady increase in prices.
Since the pandemic started home prices have remained relatively stable and June 2020 saw an increase of between 3.5 % and 3.6 % depending on property type.
It seems that so far the pandemic has had a lot less impact on the Vancouver real estate market than many had predicted and hopefully our economy will recover well also. Analysts are saying that BC is better equipped to recover faster than the rest of Canada.