Home buyers looking in the Fraser Valley had a little more selection to choose from in March as the supply of properties hitting the market increased for the third month in a row.

According to the latest market insights from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB), the number of new listings in the region grew in March, the third consecutive month an increase has been recorded. This bolstered overall active inventory to levels not reported since last July.

“Sales were strong again in March as more new listings continued to come on stream. We’re hopeful this will contribute to a slowing in price growth, which is good news for the home-buying public,” said Sandra Benz, president of FVREB. “Other encouraging signs, such as less open house traffic and fewer multiple offers, may help us get to a more balanced market, however until the fundamental issue of lack of supply is addressed, we won’t see that happen anytime soon.”

In March, 4,580 new listings were added to the market. Although this is 10% less compared to the same month last year, the quantity of newly-added homes rose 22.4% between February and March. Total active inventory for March equaled 4,699 properties, a 24% increase from the previous month, but a 6.2% decrease from the 5,012 active listings reported in March 2021.

Last month, the Fraser Valley logged 2,580 residential and commercial sales via its MLS system. This marks a 22.5% drop from March 2021, but is a notable 41.4% increase compared to February.

On average, it took 12 days to sell a single-family detached home in the Fraser Valley during March, slightly longer than apartments, which took 11 days to sell. Townhomes required the longest amount of time to sell last month with an average of 14 days on the market.

When it comes to benchmark prices, townhomes grew the most month-over-month and annually, rising 5.4% from February and 41.9% from 2021 to $886,400. Single-family detached properties increased in price by 3.4% monthly and 39.5% yearly to a benchmark of $1,726,900, while the cost of an apartment rose 4.6% compared to February and soared 38.2% from March 2021 to $643,000.

In a week, the Bank of Canada is expected to announce its next decision on the mortgage-influencing overnight rate. Already, the BoC has raised interest rates by 0.25%, and this is expected to be the first of a handful of increases slated for 2022. That said, the effects of higher interest rates may not be noticed in the housing market until later this year, according to FVREB’s CEO, Baldev Gill.

“We may not see the impact of recent interest rate hikes on the market trends until later in 2022. With fixed rates nearly double what they were a year ago, new homebuyers will likely be more impacted than other segments of the home-buying public, as mortgage stress test conditions become more stringent,” he said. “We hope to see equal efforts from [the] government to address inventory issues to help make housing more affordable.”

FVREB : New Home Listings Climb for Third Consecutive Month in The Fraser Valley by Michelle McNally | Livabl