December 2023 Market update

Wow, 2023, what a year.

It turns out, the Vancouver real estate market is super resilient! And despite what was going around in the media… the market did not crash. In this blog going to give a short and sweet recap about what's been happening in the market as of December 2023!

We have seen some of the highest borrowing costs in over a decade and the market still was in a balanced market at the end of the year.

Prices had actually dropped slightly by the end of the year, over all residential properties in Metro Vancouver; Taking a closer look at Vancouver (both West and East side), the prices dropped 1.3% in the East side and 2.1% on the West side from November to December. 

Though if we’re looking long term, they’re still on trend of real estate prices increasing with the one-year-change in prices being +2% (5.4% in 2022 to  7.4% in 2023). 

Condo prices remained the most stable from November to December, whereas townhouses took the biggest hit in price. If you think about it, it does make sense, because townhouses are usually big for upsizers, specifically growing familie. However, with the interest rates being where they were, there was less room in the budget for people to move on up the real estate ladder.

There were a total of 26,249 sales in the region for 2023, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. This amounts to 10.3% less sales recorded than in 2022,

And get this, a 41.5% decrease in sales from 2021. 

such a big decrease, but really that’s not surprising... 2021 was a record hot market year! With the exceptionally low interest rates, it made sense for a lot of people to jump into the market.  

The 2023 sales were 23.4% below the 10-year annual sales average in greater Vancouver. If you were a homebuyer or a seller during the year, I am sure you felt the slower market too. Buyers weren’t feeling as rushed, and it was normal to see listings sitting on the market longer.

Andrew Lis, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s director of economics and data analytics said:

“In our 2023 forecast, we called for modest price increases throughout the year while most other forecasters were predicting price declines. The fact that we ended the year with five-per-cent-plus gains in home prices across all market segments demonstrates that Metro Vancouver remains an attractive and desirable destination, and elevated borrowing costs alone aren’t enough to dissuade buyers determined to get into this market.” 

Bottom line, people love Vancouver and will always be buying and selling, our market did not crash, and interest rates are predicted to start going down in 2024 — what do you think will happen to the market in the coming year?