{"id":3962,"date":"2016-11-10T11:11:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T19:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/?p=3962"},"modified":"2016-11-10T08:14:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T16:14:32","slug":"housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Fraser Valley housing market has been on a roller-coaster ride since January, but sales and listings have moved closer to historical averages, says Charles Wiebe, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board\u2019s (FVREB).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Wiebe acknowledged 2016 has been like no other in the valley.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been an unprecedented year,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will definitely be interesting to see where we go from here on out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The year got off to a fast start in Surrey and other cities in the valley. By February sales had taken off, posting a 79% increase from February 2015 and a 78% increase from the previous month. In March there were 3,006 sales processed, setting the all-time high since the FVREB\u2019s inception in 1921. By June the seller\u2019s market had spilled over to townhomes and apartments as inventory remained well below historical averages, pushing many properties into multiple offers and bidding wars.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But by July the market cooled off, with sales falling 10.2% compared with the 2,184 recorded in July 2015. It was also a 31.5% drop compared with the 2,864 transactions processed in June 2016.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Wiebe said the up-and-down figures for 2016 paint a compelling picture.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt looking at our sales today compared to where they were at the early part of the year, it appears quite dramatic,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when we compare our sales here from September to this point in October, we\u2019re really at the average that we\u2019ve had over the last 10 years \u2013 both in the number of sales and listings coming onto the marketplace.\u201d He added that the return to a \u201cbalanced market\u201d is good for both buyers and sellers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">FVREB figures for September show housing sales dropping below the 10-year average for the first time this year. There were 1,305 sales processed in September, a 24.4% decrease compared with September 2015, and a 23% decrease from August of this year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The number of new listings dropped to its lowest level in seven months, and for the Fraser Valley region, the average number of days it took in September to sell a single-family detached home was 27, compared with 17 in June.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Wiebe said the figures for the Fraser Valley weren\u2019t hit nearly as hard as those of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) after the August implementation of the 10% foreign-buyer tax, adding that foreign buyers account for only somewhere between 5% and 8% of the market in the Fraser Valley. He said the only area to show a substantial drop was White Rock. He noted the FVREB was \u201cunhappy\u201d with the way the tax was implemented, and said working-class immigrants in communities all over the Fraser Valley were \u201cunfairly targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThere were some foreign buyers [in the Fraser Valley] who could barely come up with the money to qualify to begin with,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople who were already working in the communities, who were sought out to come to our communities because of their skills. People who have come to the community who are paying taxes and buying goods and services. I don\u2019t understand how they\u2019re already contributing, but they also have to pay the tax?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Matt Morrow, a realtor with Re\/Max who has been selling in the Fraser Valley since 2005, said he has seen ripple effects from the foreign-buyer tax.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cYes, things have definitely slowed down over the past six to eight weeks,\u201d Morrow said. \u201cThere were signs of it slowing up just prior to the foreign investment tax being implicated, then the arrival of the tax seemed to have a further impact. It\u2019s been more so on the higher-end homes, with a trickle-down effect into the mid-range.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Morrow said inventory levels have been steadily climbing since, but there are still a lot of sellers who are not willing to negotiate lower prices.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c[They\u2019re] hoping for a correction and are patiently waiting. Few are in a hurry to pull the trigger and with more to choose from it will have some impact, at least temporarily.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Metro Vancouver home sales totalled 2,253 in September, a 9.5% decrease compared with August and a 32.6% drop from September 2015. Sales within the REBGV\u2019s jurisdiction were 9.6% below the 10-year sales average for the month. President Dan Morrison acknowledged the market was heavily influenced by the foreign-buyer tax in a press release.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cChanging market conditions are easing upward pressure on home prices in our region,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s uncertainty in the market at the moment and home buyers and sellers are having difficulty establishing price as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In October, the federal Liberal government announced sweeping changes to the mortgage rules, looking to tighten up lending and make mortgage insurance mandatory for buyers with down payments of between 5% and 20% of the purchase price. The Bank of Canada left its benchmark overnight rate unchanged at 0.5% in an October announcement by governor Stephen Poloz. Some analysts stated this may clear the way for an interest rate drop in the near future, but Wiebe said he stopped trying to predict what Canada\u2019s central bank might do long ago.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI can honestly say every time I\u2019ve predicted what\u2019s going to happen with interest rates, I\u2019ve been wrong. Especially for my own mortgage. So to be honest I\u2019m not sure how that will develop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biv.com\/article\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-fraser-valley\/\" target=\"_blank\">Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley<\/a> by Patrick Blennerhassett | Business in Vancouver<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Fraser Valley housing market has been on a roller-coaster ride since January, but sales and listings have moved closer to historical averages, says Charles Wiebe, president of the Fraser &hellip; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/\">read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-updates"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Fraser Valley housing market has been on a roller-coaster ride since January, but sales and listings have moved closer to historical averages, says Charles Wiebe, president of the Fraser &hellip; [read more]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RoryClipsham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@RoryClipsham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rory Clipsham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rory Clipsham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7\"},\"headline\":\"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-10T19:11:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":886,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Market Updates\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\\\/\",\"name\":\"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-10T19:11:23+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2016\\\/11\\\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\",\"description\":\"Rory C Real Estate Updates | Home Selling &amp; Buying\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7\",\"name\":\"Rory Clipsham\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/RoryC-white-w-tagline.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/RoryC-white-w-tagline.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/RoryC-white-w-tagline.jpg\",\"width\":504,\"height\":504,\"caption\":\"Rory Clipsham\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/RoryC-white-w-tagline.jpg\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/pg\\\/BurnabyandCoquitlamHomes\\\/about\\\/?ref=page_internal\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/roryclipshamhomes\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/RoryClipsham\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty","twitter_description":"The Fraser Valley housing market has been on a roller-coaster ride since January, but sales and listings have moved closer to historical averages, says Charles Wiebe, president of the Fraser &hellip; [read more]","twitter_creator":"@RoryClipsham","twitter_site":"@RoryClipsham","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rory Clipsham","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/"},"author":{"name":"Rory Clipsham","@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7"},"headline":"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley","datePublished":"2016-11-10T19:11:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/"},"wordCount":886,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7"},"articleSection":["Market Updates"],"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/","url":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/","name":"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-11-10T19:11:23+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/11\/housing-market-cools-in-fraser-valley\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Housing Market Cools in Fraser Valley"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/","name":"Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty","description":"Rory C Real Estate Updates | Home Selling &amp; Buying","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7","name":"Rory Clipsham","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/RoryC-white-w-tagline.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/RoryC-white-w-tagline.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/RoryC-white-w-tagline.jpg","width":504,"height":504,"caption":"Rory Clipsham"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/RoryC-white-w-tagline.jpg"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pg\/BurnabyandCoquitlamHomes\/about\/?ref=page_internal","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/roryclipshamhomes\/","https:\/\/x.com\/RoryClipsham"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3962"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3964,"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions\/3964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}