With interest rates dropping and plenty of properties for sale, real estate agents are scratching their heads as to why buyers aren’t snapping up more homes. Looking back at August and September, the market has been a lot quieter than usual, said Eric Christiansen, a top-selling Realtor at Bellevue Realty Group in West Vancouver. From January to the beginning of October, detached home sales have nudged up slightly (312 compared to 300 in 2023) but that’s a far cry from the volume in previous years – 374 in 2022 and 531 in 2021 over the same period.
According to Greater Vancouver Realtors, September data don’t show signs of renewed market demand in response to recent mortgage-rate reductions. Sales continue trending around 25-per-cent below the 10-year seasonal average, with a slight improvement over last year. In North Vancouver, the benchmark price for a single-family home fell 1.
3 per cent to $2.21 million compared to a year ago, and in West Van it inched up just 0.3 per cent to $3.
27 million. “I don’t want to sound too doom and gloom, because I’ve got lots of great listings,” Christiansen said. “There’s a ton of great deals out there .
.. and, for whatever reason, they’re just not selling.
” There are lots of potential buyers out there waiting for some sign to buy, Christiansen said, but he’s not exactly sure what that indicator is. One factor could be the amount of volatility in the world right now. “I mean, there’s two wars going on.
We don’.