With the cherry blossoms in full bloom, we enter into what could be a surprising May in the Kitsilano real estate market. Typically a peak time for sales activity, the April market stats show sales activity dropping in both the attached and detached markets. Will this trend continue through May? If so, and I suspect it will, it appears the ‘summer slowdown’ that we typically see towards the middle of June has started early this year. The most likely factor, in my mind, is the surge in activity we saw in February and March due to buyers rushing to purchase to beat the new mortgage rules that came into effect March 18, 2011. That surge effectively started the Spring market earlier than expected this year, so perhaps it is only natural that the activity tails off sooner as well.
Listing inventory in the condo market dropped as well last month, which is also a bit surprising given that inventories typically remain strong well into the Summer months. The average sale price for attached home bounced back in April, after slipping in March, but has not yet returned to the peak levels we saw in January of this year.
The detached market is a whole other story. While we did observe slight increases in inventory, the real story here is the jump in average sale prices. After being somewhat level for the past few months, the average sale price spiked in April to level the peaks we saw in this market back in June of last year. I can’t at all imagine that this trend can continue, so look for those prices to fall back into line in the next month or two.
I hope you are enjoying what is my favourite time in Kitsilano and, with any luck, by the time I sit down to write next month’s update, the Canucks will be Stanley Cup champions!
Attached & Detached graphs after the jump…
Kitsilano - Attached
Kitsilano - Detached
