It is Monday and time for you to get your weekly fix of Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver Real Estate numbers, so stay tuned to be in the know!

Thanks for tuning in for your Monday Market Monitor as we look back at the August 1st to August 7th numbers for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. We are officially coming to the end of the dog days of summer, and if you are like me, when you scroll through facebook, you begin to notice just how many people are away or are on vacation.
And that is having an effect on our Real Estate Market.

So, this week our new listings coming to market are just a tad bit more than last week, so up 18 units to 759. Nothing exciting there. But what really caught my attention from this past week’s numbers were the number of expired listings.

There were a total of 279 listings that expired or came to the end of their contract this week. That is a crazy number and the highest number in a very long time… for perspective, five weeks ago, there were only 77 listings that expired and last week 100.
So, there is a marked increase in listings that could not sell. What will be interesting is to see what that number looks like as we finish off the summer and get into September when everyone is back from vacation, and the kids are in school.

Moving on to Price Changes.
Last week there were 298 listings that got haircuts. Not too far off the 328 from the week before, and what that tells me is that people are still looking to sell their properties. But again, if I were advising clients right now, it would be to hit the market for the 3rd week in September, when the full buyer pool is back from vacation, and marketing can have the most significant impact! But I sound like a broken record so let’s move on.

Finally, let’s talk about the number of sales. As you can guess, the number of sales dropped week over week and is at the lowest number this summer, at 333 properties sold.
Now while that number is predictably lower than last week, what came as a shock to me was that the number of properties that sold at  of above list price increased.
So, I have only been tracking this specific stat for the last 3 weeks but so far here is the progression. 3 weeks ago 26% of the listings sold at or over list price, then the following week it was 26.5%, and this past week, that number crept up again to 27.3%.
Now I am not going to say that it is a trend yet, but it is starting to look like one. And a number that I will keep on top of moving forward!
I did want to touch on one more intriguing number here, and that is out of the 91 listings that sold at or above list price. Sixty-one of them were under $1M. I mentioned this last week, and I will say it again… if you are looking to sell a property at this entry-level price point, you might be in luck for a good sale, that is, if you have the right agent on your side. Now for entry-level buyers this means that the competition for what you are looking for is still intense, and you need an experienced agent on your side to ensure that your offer stands out above the rest.

Enough about numbers; get out and enjoy the last of the Dog Days of Summer, friends, and thank you again for tuning into your Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver Real Estate numbers and we will see you in the next Collective Communique!