The fall housing market is typically one of the busiest times in the year, a period where you might expect more listings to come online. But according to insights from Dexter Realty this week, Greater Vancouver is seeing the opposite as fewer new listings become available.

In a Mid-October Greater Vancouver Sales and Listing Report, Dexter Realty’s broker and chief economist Kevin Skipworth said active listings in the region are close to falling below 9,000.

“The well has become much drier. Instead of climbing above 10,000 active listings in Greater Vancouver we are now close to dropping below 9,000,” said Skipworth in the email report. “That is extremely rarified air for the market at this time of year, the lowest we’ve seen in over 30 years.”

At the beginning of September, Greater Vancouver had 9,239 active listings, which increased to 9,811 by mid-month. Now, the region has 9,161 total active listings, quite the contrast from the 13,670 listings there were logged during the mid-point of October 2020.

Skipworth pointed out that in October 1995, there were 17,422 active listings in Greater Vancouver. Although the Canadian census indicates that the number of private dwellings has grown by over 26% since 2001, Skipworth suspects that real estate is not being flipped.

“People are holding on to the real estate they buy,” he said. “One would think that a measured increase in the number of private dwellings in Metro Vancouver would equate to a similar increase in the number of active listings for sale. Not the case at all.”

Skipworth mentioned that this scenario is something that the government should consider when creating policy around how homes are sold, citing that measures to control demand, “typically interfere with the motivation to sell.”

Throughout the course of October so far, 1,767 properties have been sold in Greater Vancouver, an uptick from the mid-point of September and mid-month October 2020 when 1,477 and 1,741 sales transacted.

The number of listings coming onto the market has been down 26% annually so far in October, with 2,231 new homes added to the roster, a drop from the 2,897 properties during the mid-point of September.

When it comes to housing types, detached homes saw a 7% decline in active listings compared to the same period in September. Mid-month sales were up 31% from September, and new detached listings are down 22%.

Similarly, active listings for apartments dropped 5% as sales grew 21% monthly and new listings declined 24% during the same period. The quantity of townhome listings across Greater Vancouver “continues to be at all-time lows and can’t get much lower.”

Vancouver East and West have reported 204 and 295 units sold at mid-month in October, bringing on 255 and 534 new listings each, a drop from September’s mid-month count of 361 and 730 properties. A similar story was reported in North and West Vancouver, where new listings dropped on a monthly basis.

Active Vancouver Listings Hit A 30-Year Low by Michelle McNally | Livabl