Market Recap - August 2018
Single Family Prices and Volume
120 single family homes sold in August, 11 more than the 109 sold in July, but down 13% from the 138 that sold in the same timeframe last year. The average home price marginally increased from July’s average of $565,388 to $566,795, however, this is still more than 9% higher than last August when the average home price was $518,612. The median sale price decreased by 2% in August to $529,000 from July’s $539,900, but this is still almost 7% higher than last August’s median sale price of $495,000. 159 homes were listed in July representing a 30.5% decrease from the 229 listed in July, and a 27% decrease from the 218 listed in August of 2017.
Strength of the Trend
Factors we also look at when analyzing a market to validate its strength are sell/list ratio; sell price; days to sell, and current inventory numbers:
The sell/list ratio increased in August, coming in at 75%, up 56% from 48% in July and up 19% from 63% in August of 2017. This figure should be taken with a grain of salt as the number of homes listed were down 30.5% from July and 27% from August 2018, which partially explains the increase.
The sell price/list price decreased to 97% from July’s reported 106% (which appears as though it may have been erroneously reported by VIREB). In comparison, last August came in at 99% and we have not had seen this figure dip to 97% since December of 2015.
The average days on the market increased almost 48% to 34 days in August up from 23 in July, which is in turn 10 more than the average of 24 days on the market in August of last year; this marks the highest average days on the market since January 2017.
As of the end of August, the number of active listings was 379, down by over 14% from the 442 active listings in July, but more than 10% higher than inventory levels at the same time last year. Again, much of the decrease from July can be attributed to the decrease in the number of new listings.
Top Performing Neighbourhoods & Categories
11 of the 18 sub-areas defined by the real estate board in Nanaimo saw an increase in the average selling price (trailing 12 months) from July to August, with 16 of the 18 also experiencing increased prices year-over-year. This is actually the first time in nearly 2 years that we have had a sub-area experience a year-over-year decline. When looking at these neighbourhood figures, it is important to note that we use trailing 12-month figures to limit volatility caused by lower transaction volumes in some neighbourhoods, where a few high priced or low priced transactions could tremendously skew results. A trailing 12 figure will always be slower to react than simple month-over-month, so that is why the results here are not going to be as pronounced as the figures used in the stats we report above. Moving on, these year-over-year average price changes range from -0.96% in South Jinglepot to 21.31% in Pleasant Valley. Top risers month-over-month were Pleasant Valley and Upper Lantzville. Top performers year-over-year were Pleasant Valley, Uplands, Chase River, Departure Bay, University District, Central Nanaimo, and Brechin Hill. Looking at volume, the only risers both monthly and annually were North Jinglepot and Central Nanaimo.
Single-family homes, single-family waterfront properties (on low volume), and townhouses were the only housing categories that saw an increase in average sale price from July to August, while single-family homes, apartment style condos, patio homes, and townhouses all experienced increases year-over-year.
Check out the Nanaimo Market Statistics Here: Monthly Statistics for August 2018
Source: VIREB