New figures from the Victoria Real Estate Board (VREB) show home prices in decline across the Saanich Peninsula, if not the region, with the West Shore bucking the trend.
The home price index for a single-family home on the Saanich Peninsula dropped to $792,200 in October, down 1.54 per cent when compared to the same period last year. The core region also saw a dip, dropping 2.4 per cent and the Gulf Islands dropped 3.94 per cent. The West Shore, however, saw an increase of 5.2 per cent compared to a year ago.
A similar picture on the Peninsula also appears when it comes to condominiums. While condominium prices rose 1.69 per cent year-to-year in the core region, they dropped 2.98 per cent on the Saanich Peninsula.
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The latest numbers confirm a generally softening of real estate prices on the Saanich Peninsula and elsewhere in the region with the general proviso that they remain at high levels, with many residents unable to afford them.
Looking at the broader picture, VREB’s figures show 619 properties sold across the region in October, up 3.5 per cent compared to 598 properties sold in October 2018 and an increase of 0.5 per cent from September 2019.
“This month’s overall numbers are very similar to the numbers we saw last year,” said Cheryl Woolley, VREB’s president. “It’s interesting that last month we saw a large uptick in condo sales, but this month is fairly flat when compared to last year. This shows that we are not yet seeing a trend in property types.”
Looking at two specific categories of properties, sales of condominium dropped 1.1 per cent from October 2018 with 178 units sold. Sales of single-family homes, meanwhile, made up for this drop by rising 10 per cent with 318 sold in October 2019 in VREB’s coverage area, which also includes the Gulf Islands and the Malahat area.
VREB reported 2,643 active listings at the end of October, a decrease of 6.4 per cent compared to the month of September, but a 5.3 per cent increase from the 2,510 active listings for sale at the end of October 2018.
Total sales of single-family homes topped $283.5 million, while total sales of condominiums topped $80.79 million in VREB’s coverage area.
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