Chris Kruse Real Estate Consultant
3194 Douglas St. V8Z 3K6 Victoria, BC, Canada

April 14: March numbers were lining up to be as strong as we had in 2016-2017 but that seems so long ago now. Instead of posting seemingly irrelevant month end numbers I began to watch and document the market on a weekly basis. Here are my thoughts from the first two weeks of reviews: The weekly trend in the last two weeks show a significant slow down as expected; week 1 of April had 44 residential sales and week 2 had 45 sales. If these sales rates remain, we would end wi...th 192 residential sales in April; April 2019 had 606 sales, April 2018 had 558 sales. At the current active listing count, this would mean a 7.2 month supply, which is a Buyer’s market. SFD: Prices have not dropped yet in detached homes with an average sales price of 106% of the assessed value. At the current rate, we will end with 102 sales vs. 248 in March 2020 and 316 in April 2019. At its current rate, Victoria and Vic West will end with 6 sales for April compared to 34 in April 2019. Oak Bay has had 1 sale all month which is difficult to extrapolate to a monthly sales figure. Westshore sales remain strong and down only slightly with a 4.1 month supply vs. 3.1 for March 2020. Condo: Prices have dropped significantly with an average price of 96% of assessment vs. the 105% average of the last few months. At the current rate we will end with 77 sales vs. 198 for April 2019 and 207 for April 2018. Westshore sales appear to be the strongest and remains at 2.7 months of supply similar to March figures. The Core is at 8.4 months supply currently vs. 3.5 for March 2020. The Peninsula has not recorded any condo sales this month. By price, condo sales have been in the 0-$650k range only. Townhouses and 1/2 Duplex: we have recorded 6 sales this month which makes it difficult to extrapolate numbers but at this rate we would end with 14 sales compared to 80-90 sales per month on average.

Chancellor Merkel addresses her nation. A powerful message worth reading the subtitles on. https://nymag.com//angela-merkel-nails-coronavirus-speech-

The Victoria Condo industry is NOT falling off a cliff!!! Yes, some condo buildings are being impacted significantly by the new insurance rates but the well maintained buildings with few claims are still safe to buy in. Now that we have addressed the elephant in the room let’s have a look at our February numbers....Continue reading

BIG MORTGAGE NEWS: Canadian Gov't has just announced it will be loosening its guidelines surrounding the Stress Test for insured mortgages - as of April 6th we will be able to use 5 year discounted rate + 2% (e.g. today that would be a drop in qualifying rate from 5.19% to 4.69%). read the full announcement here: https://www.canada.ca//minister-morneau-announces-new-benc

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January 2020 is in the books and the market has not skipped a beat. Here is my not so short summary of the market segments. Feel free to reach out with any questions you may have. Always happy to help. South Island Real Estate remains in strong demand with similar sales volume compared to January 2019 (342 vs. 353) but with a lower inventory (1241 vs 1560) we are only at 3.6 month supply vs. 4.4 last year. Detached homes continue to be in high demand and are down to a 3.4 ...Continue reading