Are you ready to put Warren Buffett’s investing advice into practice? Right now is a great time to buy real estate in Vancouver market. The reason being, home buyers have been less active in recent months and we’re beginning to see prices edge down for all housing types as a result. Buyers today have more listings to choose from and face less competition than we’ve seen in our market in recent years. This is a clear indication that in Vancouver real estate market we already have ‘Buyer’s Market’.

As per August 2018 stats of Fraser Valley Real Estate board market activity declined further in August and sales dropped to the lowest level this year. Sales number have dropped to 1155 in comparison to 1879 sales in Augut 2017. As on Sep 27, 2018 number of sales in Sept month is 929 as compared to 860 in August 2018, but good news for buyers is that inventory of new listing is gone up to 2690 listings in comparison to 2072 listings in August 2018. This means now buyers can see an easing of competition with less number of multiple offer situation.

This is so strange that in recent years buyers have been looking for ‘deals’ in the market, they were happy to compete in multiple offers. But right now when market has shifted toward ‘buyer’s market’ where are all those buyers gone? This is the time to get real ‘deals’. Well it is understandable that buyers’ pool has shrunken a little bit after recent changes in mortgage rules, but it has been observed in recent weeks that a lot of qualified buyers are backing off from their offers.

Media has a big role to play in this kind of behavior of buyers. Some so called real estate experts scare people every morning in their talk-shows by giving their opinions about real estate market. I was driving with a realtor friend to a client, all of the sudden his phone rings and his client on the other side is asking my friend to turn on the radio channel and listen to real estate talk on it. Whoa! We were so surprised to see this influence media can create in the minds of people. It has been observed recently buyers agreeing on price and terms on one day and walking away from the deals next morning.

So my advice to all buyers is to gear up and take action now, The best first step you could take is talk to a local realtor you trust, who can help you determine your best options and a plan to move forward with you home purchase.

Navtej Khela
Realtor and Mind Power Trainer
604-700-8568