Chilliwack – Homes are barely hitting the MLS® system before offers are snapping them up at a record pace. Home sales in Chilliwack and area burst through the 500 mark in April for the first time ever in CADREB closing the month at 530 sales beating even last month’s all-time record setting month for sales.
“It’s unprecedented,” said Chilliwack and District Real Estate President Richard Admiraal. “With home prices beyond reach for many in the Greater Vancouver area, we are still seeing a big influx of buyers from points west who are willing to commute for the tradeoff of an affordable home and a nice community. Investors are also very active in our market”.
The increased demand has pushed home prices noticeably higher. The average home price on an annual month-to-month basis has gone up by 21 percent, fueled by the record sales.
Of the 530 sales in April, 306 were single family homes, 118 were townhomes, and 54 apartments. There were 30 sales of houses with acreage. Total sales were almost double that for the same month last year, with dollar value equating to $217.6 million.
“This injects money into our community in direct and secondary goods and services associated with buying a new home,” added Mr. Admiraal. “The economy in the entire southern half of BC is doing well generally, consumer confidence is high, and we are benefitting from it locally”.
The highest number of homes sold (93) were in the $400,000-$499,999 range, followed by 82 sales in the $500,000-$599,999 range. There were 8 sales of properties over the $1 million mark.
Low inventory is certainly a challenging reality to this market as at the end of last month, 992 active listings were on the market, compared to 1,504 at this time last year. While understandable that sellers are concerned about making lateral moves at a time when prices are higher, some are opting to take advantage of new construction, which is also on the rise.
“New housing starts are up considerably, but it takes time to get new houses to the market,” added the CADREB President. “Vacant land in both the residential and commercial sector showed sizable increases in sales so new housing is on it’s way in time.””
With continued low interest rates and a vibrant southern BC economy, this hot local real estate market shows little signs of cooling down anytime soon.
