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For all purposes we are officially in our spring market season. Sales were up 16% in March for the Fraser Valley - compared to February of this year. As we have mentioned before this was an unusually quick start to the 2011 year for example, compared to the same time last year this February's sales were 42% more.

Overall there is strong demand in the Fraser Valley but not necessarily for all product types in all areas. Ie: Sales of homes in White Rock/South Surrey were up 150% in March compared to last year but down 7% in Abbotsford. Surrey has started to see some of the "investor frenzy" that has been shown in the media lately but not anywhere close to the same degree as Vancouver, Richmond and White Rock.

Regarding prices – despite demand we are not seeing large gains or losses - final sale prices also being more dependent on the product and the area. The benchmark price for a home in the Fraser Valley right now is $519,628 up 0.9% from March of last year. Townhomes are up 1.1% from last year to $327,328.

For the Surrey/Cloverdale area the benchmark price on Detached homes and Townhomes went down 1.2% and 1.8% respectively since the same time last year. This price flattening will likely continue until the end of spring due to the continual increase of new listings coming online (Feb – Mar was a 6% increase in new listings). Moving into summer analysts still predict prices will begin to soften as demand slows moving into the final quarters of the year.

If you want to chat about what all this means to you for buying or selling – call us anytime at 604-583-2000