Low inventory of homes for sale in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows

There aren’t enough properties for sale in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows to give buyers a reasonable choice, according to a longtime local agent.

Debbie Sheppard said she held an open house that was attended by 65 groups.

“There’s no product out there, but the buyers are there,” she said. “They’re trying to find what they’re looking for.”

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s January report reflects this sentiment, reporting that Metro Vancouver’s housing stock remains low.

January home sales fell well below historical monthly averages.

The agency reports that a total of 1,022 residential properties were sold in the region in January 2023, down 55.3 percent from January 2022’s 2,285 sales. It was also 43 percent below the 10-year average of January sales. It’s been a generally slower month for the industry.

In Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, 44 homes sold in January at an average price of $1.14 million. Twenty-two homes were sold at an average price of $525,000. There were 13 townhouses old but no average prices were available.

For comparison, in January 2022, 61 homes sold for $1.53 million, 53 apartments for $610,000, and 36 townhouses for $890,000.

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“With mortgage rates rising so rapidly over the past year, we expected this month’s sales to be among the lowest in recent history,” said Andrew Lis, director, economics and data analytics at REBGV. “However, looking ahead, the Bank of Canada has said it will hold off further rate hikes as long as incoming economic data continues to support this policy stance. This should give more security to home buyers and sellers in the market.”

Sheppard said buyers are adjusting to the realities of the new interest rates and are ready to do business. You just need some options in the lists, she said.

In January 2023, 3,297 new detached, attached and apartment properties were listed for sale at MLS in Metro Vancouver. That’s a 21 percent decrease from the 4,170 homes listed in January 2022.

Sheppard said the price decline has slowed, and that’s backed up by the REBGV statistics. The three-month change across all property types is down 3.3 percent at Maple Ridge and 4.9 percent at Pitt Meadows.

“We know that prices in our market peaked last spring. In the coming months, year-over-year data comparisons will show larger price declines than we have reported so far,” Lis said. “It is important to understand that annual calculations are backward looking. Those price declines have already happened and what we are seeing today is that prices may have taken root, even as it struggles between low inventories and higher borrowing costs.”

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Source: www.mapleridgenews.com