According to the monthly press release by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board levels of home sales are beginning to return to normal, based on the Fraser Valley real estate stats for April 2011. A total of 1,516 property sales were processed by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board on its Multiple Listing Service (MLS®) in April. That works out to be a 15% decrease compared to April 2010 numbers, when 1,793 properties were sold.
The president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, Sukh Sidhu, said explained the terminology of "return to balance" used in its press release. The 20-year average for residential property sales was 1,580, just above the 1,516 number of April 2011.
Numbers in April were down slightly on March too--down 17% in total. But the Board is not worried by those number either. The spike in February and March and normalization in April was expected because of the tighter credit conditions that were introduced by the Canadian Federal Government on March 18.
Not all areas of the Fraser Valley experienced lower sales numbers, certain market areas within the Fraser Valley have remained active in April. Sales of single detached homes in White Rock/South Surrey have remained strong. Property prices have continued to increase in those areas too; the benchmark price of detached homes in the White Rock/South Surrey area have increased by 11% over the last three months.
The same levels of property price increases were not seen in all areas of the Fraser Valley however; the average increase was 3.9%. According to the press release, the benchmark price for a detached home in the Fraser Valley was $525,510, up 1% on the April 2010 price. The benchmark price of a townhouse was $332,992, up 2% on April prices. For condos or apartments, the benchmark price was $252,689, up 1.3% on April 2010 prices. The benchmark price is the estimated sale price of a benchmark property. Benchmarks represent a typical property within each market.
In regards to real estate market listings, last month finished with 9,697 active listings on the MLS®--5% more than in March, but a 9% decrease on the number of active listings in April 2010. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board received 2,918 new listings last month, down 14% on March. Several areas in the Fraser Valley had a high level of new listings; Fraser Heights real estate listings came in strong comparatively, as did listings on the market around Surrey City Centre.
You can find more information on the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board website, or follow our commentary of Fraser Valley real estate news and stats on our blog, where we cover every angle of property news from the Fraser Valley.