Terminated home listings spike amidst Metro Vancouver downturn

Number of terminated home listings spikes amidst Metro Vancouver market downturn

Browsing home properties for sale in British Columbia. (Shutterstock)

A housing slowdown in Metro Vancouver is now underway and the latest sign is the pattern of the increasing number of terminated listings.

Data from home listing website HouseSigma shows there was a 121% increase in the number of home listings between February and May and a 41% month-over-month increase for May alone.

The number of terminated listings in the region reached 2,331 in February, 3,119 in March, 3,634 in April, and 5,140 in May.

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“We’re now starting to see the full effect of rising interest rates on buyers and sellers’ habits,” said Hao Li, a broker with HouseSigma. “These double-digit dips in detached home averages in areas like Surrey and Maple Ridge highlight the pullback that’s happening in BC’s market.”

“This is an indication that buyers are taking their time, and no longer feel rushed into buying a property. They’re realizing that if they wait, they may either see a drop in price or find a property that ticks off more boxes.”

The growing number of listings being terminated means they have not been sold during a specified timeline, for reasons that include “offer day” scenarios when a seller does not get an attractive offer that day, and the listing is then terminated and relisted as a “new listings” to attract new potential buyers.

Another reason for the terminated listing could be the desire by the seller to wait for the housing market to improve, or maybe because the listing has been available for too long.

The average duration for listings in the market in Metro Vancouver is now 32 days — up from an average of only nine days in February.

The Fraser Valley and the suburban areas of Metro Vancouver are seeing the greatest home sales volume drops — a steep contrast to these areas previously seeing double-digit growth in sales volumes and prices, fuelled by pent-up demand and historically low interest rates over the last two years.

The median sale price of all property types in the region hovered at $922,000 in May, which is down 12% compared to February.

Five cities posted double-digit median price drops for detached properties; over the same period between February and May, the greatest changes were drops of 14.8% in Maple Ridge, 14.7% in New Westminster, 14.2% in Surrey, 12% in Langley, and 11.5% in Port Moody. Vancouver saw a modest dip of 0.4%, while Pitt Meadows, Richmond, and West Vancouver went up by 1.3%, 2.3%, and 13.6%, respectively.

BC Real Estate Association is forecasting home price escalation across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley will stabilize over the remainder of 2022, before seeing a comparatively highly modest price growth of only 1% in 2023.

Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s jurisdiction is expected to see its home sales volumes fall from 44,900 units in 2021 to 30,000 units in 2023, while the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (which includes Surrey and other suburban Metro Vancouver cities) is expected to see its home sales volumes drop from 26,500 units in 2021 to 17,000 units in 2023.

“Buyers scrambled to find a property during the pandemic, raising prices at a pace we’ve never seen before. Since the Bank of Canada started raising rates, buyers have steadily taken a more ‘wait-and-see’ approach to buying a home, and sellers have had to adjust their sale price expectations,” said Li.

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