January is consistently the most affordable month to buy a home in Metro Vancouver, according to an analysis of multiple listing service data by a Canadian real estate platform.

January median sale prices in the region are about 6% lower than those seen in the historically most expensive months of April to June, says Toronto-based HouseSigma Inc.

Moreover, typical January prices are 10% lower than the prices seen in recent summers, resulting in potential savings of $80,000, said the brokerage.

“People are just kind of turned off of house-browsing at that time of year” due to the holidays, vacations and winter weather, said Jeremy Bator, a HouseSigma agent in the Lower Mainland.

“But what I find is that you still get the same consistent number of listings and people going to market. ..… Usually the listings supersede the market, and the buyer pool is not really huge at that time, so [it’s a] good opportunity to save some money.”

HouseSigma analyzed more than 10 years of data from January 2015 to October 2025. For each year, it ranked all 12 months from highest price to lowest price, and then averaged those ranks across the past decade. May ranked the highest and January ranked the lowest.

The firm also looked at the median price for each month across the past decade. For each month of the year—January to December—it took the median of its median prices and ranked the months based on actual dollar amounts.

HouseSigma found that the month of January has the lowest median price at $740,000 and May has a median price of $785,000, while the months of August and September have the highest dollar amounts at $820,000 due to elevated activity in recent years.

This means a January buyer can potentially save $45,000 (6%) compared to May and $80,000 (10.8%) compared to August and September, the firm said.

Homebuyers eager to brave the cold weather may need to get cracking. The firm said December is a good time to enter the market for a new home, given that it can take several weeks to find a place and sign the deal. Prospective buyers should consider setting up financing, having conversations with their mortgage broker and getting pre-qualified, said Bator.

“When you hit the ground running in January, you’re ahead of the spring rush and you’re seeing all that product coming online at the same time,” he said.

“Getting prepared now definitely pays dividends.”

HouseSigma Firm : Holiday House-Hunting Could Save Metro Vancouver Buyers 10% by Jami Makan | BIV