Strong Sales and Prices Continue in Summer Market
September 4, 2007
The exceptional strength of the Victoria area real estate market continued in August with brisk sales and robust prices. Sales of homes and other properties in the Greater Victoria area last month reached the highest level for the month of August in over 15 years. There were 846 sales through the Victoria Real Estate Board’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in August, up 22 per cent from the 694 sales in the same month a year ago. There were 922 sales in July of this year. Meantime, 23 sales of over $1 million, including one sale in Oak Bay of over $5 million, helped push the average price of single family homes sold in August to another record high of $576,632; the median price was considerably lower and remained unchanged from July at $515,000; the six-month average was $566,094.
Victoria Real Estate Board President, Bev McIvor, says the market so far this year has exceeded expectations. "The continued strong demand we are seeing is remarkable; so far this year, overall sales are running 13 percent higher compared to the first eight months of last year." McIvor noted that despite robust prices nearly 20 per cent of sales of single family homes last month were under $400,000.
The average price for all condominiums sold in August was $298,852; the average for the last six months was $313,852. The median was again lower at $275,000. The average price for townhomes last month was $395,646; the average for the last six months was $398,299. The median was $379,000.
MLS® sales last month included 443 single family homes, 218 condominiums, 98 townhomes and 24 manufactured homes.
There were 3,352, properties listed for sale on the MLS® system at the end of last month, virtually unchanged from the 3,345 properties in the same month a year ago.
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