The Local Weekly The heart and soul of our communities with news and information about the Sunshine Coast
The busy Sunshine Coast real estate market continued last month with multiple offers commonplace, especially in the $700,000 to $900,000 range.
Demand is far beyond inventory as retirees find themselves competing with young families now considering living here.
I have been frequently called this month by disappointed buyers trying to do it alone (without the help of a local realtor or using a Vancouver-based agent). I have found the properties they are interested in already under offer or sold within hours of being posted on public sites. The common misconception is that they will save money off the purchase price by not hiring a local buyer’s agent to help them with their search. This is not the case, and buyers working with a realtor experienced in the area they are looking to buy pay, on average, significantly less than those trying to go it alone. Remember that the “transaction” pays the buyer’s agent, not the buyer.
Here are how the numbers broke down in detail for January:
January Year-Over-Year (YOY)
• January 2020 saw 47 total sales – 24 of them were single-family detached, and the average price of those homes was $649,000. The average time on market was 103 days, and the total dollar volume of sales was $30,220,000.
• January 2021 had 82 total sales – 46 of them were single-family detached houses, with the average price of those homes being $879,000. The average time on market has been 45 days, and the total dollar volume of sales was $54,895,000.
Current Detached Home Inventory Level(S)
• Gibsons – 28 homes for sale, 14 of them under $1 million (seven of those 14 already under offer)
• Roberts creek – three homes for sale, one under $1 million
• Sechelt – 40 homes for sale, 27 under $1 million
• Halfmoon Bay – six homes for sale, one under $1 million
• Pender Harbour – eight homes for sale, four under $1 million
• Total inventory – 85 detached homes listed, 64 under $1 million, and many of those are already under
offer
The numbers speak for themselves. If you are planning on selling in the spring, consider listing early and getting your property on the market to take advantage of these extremely low inventory levels and unprecedented buyer demand.
Tony Browton is an award-winning realtor who lives and works on BC’s Sunshine Coast. His weekly blog can be found here http://www.truebluerealty.ca/blog.
