Condo Prices Spike We weren't expecting to see this happen this spring. The median price has been hovering around $400k for the past year. This spiked to $427k in February. As you can see on the chart below, how unusual it is to have a price jump 5% in a single month.
The supply demand ratio also shows a noticeable increase closer to a Sellers market territory. If this remains at this level, we should expect to see more condos selling in bidding wars and prices continuing upwards.
So, what's behind this jump? Is there a shortage of condos available for sale right now? Here's that metric:
The above graph looks typical for the time of the year so the price spike is not due to the supply side. What about the demand side? There's the anomaly. More condos were bought this past February than any other February on record. Why? Could it be our exceptionally light winter allowed the Buyers out a little earlier this year than previous years? Are home prices out of reach of more and more Buyers? The coming months statistics will tell us if that is true or not. If prices fall back to the $400k range, we can explain the volatility on the irregular weather we've had. If prices hold where they are, then it's encouraging to see an increase in interest from the base. Not able to say if it's from the broad group or more specifically the investors, first time buyers, downsizers or foreign demand due to our low currency... but it's about time condo owners saw some better appreciation!