An Interpretation and a Continued Heads Up
542.
That’s the number of properties which were removed from the listings yesterday, August 31st. Those numbers won’t be shown in the weekly stats until next week (Sunday).
542.
That is a huge number for one single day and equal to 1.8 times the number of sales for an entire week.
1218.
That’s the number of expired, terminated, or cancelled listings if we add yesterday to last week’s numbers. That’s also 4x the number that sold.
Sales are continuing to fall, volume wise, and the number of properties expiring, terminating, or canceling continues to reach greater percentages of the market listings. In fact, 8% of the active market disappeared, practically overnight.
Here’s the interpretation
Listings will not grow much beyond what we have right now for the rest of the year. We’ll have a lot of listings added but those removed increasing and those sold bouncing along it’s going to be pretty tough to grow the total listings number. A lot of potential listers I’ve spoken with recently are taking a wait and see approach so you may not see any real movement on the listings number until next year. Of course, we’ll go through the winter doldrums which will see a lot of properties removed from the market then.
Here’s the Heads Up
We (you, me, they) have no idea what will happen in the future. Everyone has hunches and gut feelings… certainly opinions… but no one knows what will happen precisely. All we can tell you is what did happen and what is happening at the moment. If you want to sell then be really serious about it. If you want to think about selling, don’t bother listing as you just won’t put in the effort needed to get a deal done. If you want to buy, now is a good time to shop (I didn’t say buy, I said shop). You may come across a really good deal or a really great opportunity for you. You may not. At least you’ll see what a pretty normal, even if slightly hung over, party looks like. And pay no attention to the guy in the corner who thinks the party has just begun. There are more interesting folks to talk to.
Vancouver, BC 