Another month has come and gone and home sales are off to a sluggish start. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) processed 799 sales in January, a decrease of 4 per cent compared to the 834 sales in January last year and 10 per cent fewer than were processed in December. In the last decade, January 2012 was second only to 2009 for lowest volume.

On the flip side, compared to other starts during the last 10 years, the Board received one of its highest influxes of new listings for January – 2,753 – 5 per cent more than January 2011 and 143 per cent more than December the month before.  The increase in new inventory raised the volume of active properties in Fraser Valley to 8,320 by the end of January.

One of the reasons a large volume of listings are coming online so early in the year may be due to the weather.  It has been so mild (minus that short lived cold snap) and there has been so little snow this year sellers are not feeling as though they need to wait for the yard to thaw out. 

For buyers this is great news as they have a combination of large selection  – especially townhome product in the Sullivan area – stable pricing and the continuation of ultra-low interest rates. For sellers this means they need to stay sharp on their asking prices to ensure buyers are motivated to write on their property rather than a competing home in the area.  As you can see from the ATTACHED CHART we are well into a buyer’s market – with high supply and low demand.

In January, the benchmark price of a detached home in the Fraser Valley was $567,700, an increase of 7.6 per cent compared to January 2011 and an increase of 0.1 per cent compared to December.  For the Surrey – Cloverdale areas these same stats showed the benchmark price for January at $551,300 up only 1.4 per cent compared to Jan 2011 and down -1.6 per cent since December. 

Buyer, investor or seller, If you would like a more detailed discussion as to some of the variables and forces at play in the market right now give us a call or lets meet for coffee and talk about what this might mean for your Real Estate goals.

From time to time Colin and I like to do something fun so we are off to the rink tomorrow!  Come out and watch my Gretzky (aka Colin)  glide over the ice for a good cause. Skate by donation for the Homeless tomorrow,  Friday (Surrey Pro-D day) from 12-2 at the Surrey Sport and Leisure Complex.  All proceeds to benefit the Surrey Homelessness and Housing Society – FLYER ATTACHED – thanks for the invite Vera!

And – for the GARAGE SALE Groupies … SAVE THE DATE … our 3^rd Annual Jenn & Colin REAL ESTATE Community Garage Sale is scheduled for Saturday May 12^th – all details to be web-sited, blogged, flyered tweeted and face-booked soon!  facebook.com/jennandcolinrealestate / twitter.com/jennandcolin