Red hot real estate, bidding wars, back in Lower Mainland: real estate agents

Metro Vancouver’s real estate market is heating up according to local real estate agents.

After a brief cooling down period due to rising interest rates, one agent says he’s seeing full houses pack up again, with all types of properties going fast.

“We’re seeing a lot of multiple offers and the prices are moving up because of that because of supply and demand,” said Vinco D’Ovidio. “We are seeing so many people at open houses, so many phone calls. The market has gone back to what it used to be.”

D’Ovidio said he started seeing more buyers come back in February and sales have continued to climb ever since.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver also points to steady mortgage rates for the market change.

“The fact we are seeing prices rising and sales rebounding this spring tells us home buyers are returning with confidence after a challenging year for our market, with mortgage rates roughly doubling,” said the board’s director of economics, Andrew Lis. “The latest MLS HPI data show home prices have increased about five per cent year-to-date, which already outpaces our forecast of one to two per cent by year-end,” he continued.

Experts say one of the driving forces behind rising home prices is just how little supply there is.

“It’s important to be aware of how kind of serious the inventory situation is,” said Lis. “There just isn’t a lot of product available for sale and that’s across all segments of the market.”

Lis adds that some prospective sellers are also shying away from putting their homes on the market because they’re concerned about their own buying options.

Despite this recent uptick in the market, sales are still much lower that normal for this time of year.

The REBGV reports that residential home sales in April 2023 are down 16.5 per cent decrease April 2022, and were 15.6 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average.

Housing prices are also comparatively low, according to REBGV, down 7.4 per cent from April 2022.