Outdoorsy Realtor videos are back! Check out Jeremy Semple’s year in review of 2018 for the real estate market in the Greater Victoria, BC area. The video also showcases the beauty day we got while hiking Mt. Work in Gowlland Tod Regional Park – showcasing the amazing landscape around Vancouver Island. Please LIKE & SHARE!!
Summarized transcript below.
Victoria BC Real Estate 2018 Year in Review – Video Transcript
Everyone welcome back to another outdoorsy real estate market update. This month we are hiking Mount Work! We’re going to be going over the entire year of 2018, reviewing stats, and in some of my past videos a lot of the stats have been really broad, so I decided to split them up into different sections. Not only are we looking at all of the Victoria, BC stats, but the core West Shore and the ‘Peninsula’ will be split up, so it’s a little more specific now. Let’s get hiking first, and we’ll go over the stats in a little bit.
Alright, here we are at the top of Mount Work. It’s a beautiful day, it’s January 4th, and look how lucky we are to be living in Victoria, BC. Getting back into the stats now, so again we’re going to start with the downtown core…
Victoria, BC 2018 Real Estate Stats
The average single-family home price in the core of Victoria, BC is eight hundred fifty eight thousand six hundred ($858,600), up 3% from last year. Town-homes are six hundred and fifty five thousand eight hundred ($655,800), up almost 6%. Condos are five hundred and two thousand ($502,000) up to 7.6%.
It’s also taking the average of forty five (45) days to sell, and we’re at about five months of inventory. When I was talking about inventory before, anywhere between five and six months of inventory means that we’re in a relatively balanced market, and it also means that prices remain stable, so we’re probably looking at flat prices for a while.
Alright, moving up to the peninsula now…
Vancouver Island ‘Peninsula’ Real Estate Stats for 2018
The average single-family home in this area is at seven hundred and seventy five thousand ($758,000), which is up almost 3% from last year. Town-homes are five hundred and sixty thousand ($560,000), and that’s up 7%. Condos are four hundred and eighty eight thousand ($488,000), and that’s up just over 10%. It was taking the average property up the peninsula 50 days to sell, and they’re sitting at about five and a half months of inventory right now, so still a balanced market there.
Rounding everything out at the West Shore…
Greater Victoria’s ‘West Shore’ 2018 Real Estate Stats
Single-family homes in the West Shore are at six hundred and thirty thousand seven hundred ($630,700), up 7% from the year before. Town-homes are four hundred and eighty five thousand ($485,000), actually down 3.6%. Condos are at three hundred ninety thousand six hundred ($390,600), up 8.6%. It’s taking the average property in the West Shore almost forty days to sell, and their months of inventory are actually at six and a half months, so we’re actually getting getting close to a bit of a buyer’s market there!
READ: Going Green & Living Sustainably in Westhills — Greater Victoria
Overall 2018 Real Estate Sales in Greater Victoria, BC
Getting into overall sales now, we’re actually 20% fewer than what we had in 2017. I know that sounds like a big number, but since 2017 was such a monumental year, 2018 was actually on par with the last ten year average or slightly under, so 2018 was more of an average year considering we’re moving into some more average sales numbers.
2018 Real Estate Legislation Introduced in BC
There’s a few bits of legislation that were introduced in 2018 that have kind of affected everything and has cooled our market. Some of those are; the speculation tax, the foreign buyer tax, and of course the mortgage stress test. The major one is the mortgage stress test because it basically reduced everybody’s buying power by about 20 percent, so we’re definitely finding that more of the homes on the lower-end and condos on the lower-end are still selling; getting multiple offers, and selling really fast. It’s everything on the higher end that’s sitting on the market a little bit longer.
Final Words & Thank You
Thanks again everyone for joining me for another Victoria real estate market update in this beauty day out the top of Mount Work, and just wanted to say too that we won’t be doing these every month anymore, but it’s gonna be every quarter, so I’ll see you again in three months! Thanks again.
