SURREY, BC – For the third consecutive month, new listings in the Fraser Valley continued to climb in March giving buyers more to choose from, helping to increase overall active inventory to levels not seen since last July.

Property sales remain robust, as Benchmark prices, the price of a ‘typical’ home, continued to increase month-over-month.

In March, the FVREB processed 2,580 residential and commercial sales on its Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®), a decrease of 22.5 per cent compared to March 2021 and 41.4 per cent more than were processed in February.

Sandra Benz, President of the Board, said of this month’s statistics, “Sales were strong again in March as more new listings continued to come on stream. We’re hopeful this will contribute to a slowing in price growth, which is good news for the home-buying public. Other encouraging signs, such as less open house traffic and fewer multiple offers, may help us get to a more balanced market, however until the fundamental issue of lack of supply is addressed, we won’t see that happen anytime soon.”

The Board received 4,580 new listings in March, a decrease of 10.0 per cent compared to March of last year, and 22.4 per cent more than were processed in February. Total active inventory for March was 4,699, a decrease of 6.2 per cent compared to last year’s 5,012 active listings, however 24.0 per cent higher than last month.

Baldev Gill, Chief Executive Officer of the Board, added, “We may not see the impact of recent interest rate hikes on the market trends until later in 2022. With fixed rates nearly double what they were a year ago, new homebuyers will likely be more impacted than other segments of the home-buying public, as mortgage stress test conditions become more stringent. We hope to see equal efforts from government to address inventory issues to help make housing more affordable.”

Across Fraser Valley, in March, the average number of days to sell a single-family detached home was 12 and a townhome was 14 days. Apartments took, on average, 11 days to sell.

MLS® HPI Benchmark Price Activity

• Single Family Detached: At $1,726,900, the Benchmark price for an FVREB single-family detached home increased 3.4 per cent compared to February 2022 and increased 39.5 per cent compared to March 2021.
• Townhomes: At $886,400, the Benchmark price for an FVREB townhome increased 5.4 per cent compared to February 2022 and increased 41.9 per cent compared to March 2021.
• Apartments: At $643,000, the Benchmark price for an FVREB apartment/condo increased 4.6 per cent compared to February 2022 and increased 38.2 per cent compared to March 2021.