Don’t we love summers? We Realtors get a bit of a break from the busy springtime activity as people enjoy their holidays and just want to have a break from a hard year of work. Victoria has been a hot bed of real estate activity, this year especially. Due to a small supply of listings and a large supply of eager buyers looking for their next home we have been real busy trying to help our clients compete for the limited housing supply. Some prospective buyers are not successful and as summer approaches decide to take a break.

We will bet that most of you who tried to purchase this past spring feel that way. But let’s think about this for a moment. If you are thinking of taking a break for awhile then most likely so are many other prospective buyers who were not successful in getting a property this spring. This then means there are actually a lot less people in the summer actively submitting offers to buy. The beach is just too inviting, and holidays too nice. This may mean then that if you are trying to purchase through the summer that you might be competing with a lot less people. We have recently seen a transition from delayed offers (where all offers are considered together on a specific date) to sellers accepting offers as they come in. 

What do the numbers say? We did some analysis for May to July 2021. This is based on all Single Family Detached Homes in Greater Victoria with listing price between $800k and $1025k for each month. Please note this does not represent a complete picture as it does not include all housing types, all listing price ranges, and all areas. If you would like the full statistics for any of the months, housing types, or areas this year then send us a note and we will be happy to provide these to you.

Here we notice that as we enter the summer the total sales #units, the average list and sales prices decrease a bit. July over May shows almost $15k decrease in Average Sales Price.

As we enter into the fall selling period from September onward after school starts we will see an increase again in number of listings and sales and sales prices rising again as sellers ramp up and prospective buyers enter the market.

So what do we take from this? Keen buyers who take advantage of the slower summer activity may just have a better opportunity to clinch that deal because of less competition from other buyers and as well may pay a lower price than later in the year.

Think about it! Then contact us and let’s get you that next home this summer!

Have a great summer!

Gary and Rosemary
Published August 1, 2021
MLS Current Statistics are available on our Resources Page