Victoria Real Estate: July 2020
Victoria Real Estate July 2020
Victoria Real Estate in July 2020 was unusually busy for our typical summer season. A delayed spring season shows the impacts of COVID-19 and the reaction buyers and sellers are having to the world health crisis. Sales are picking back up as market movement quickens, we are curious to see what happens in this last month of summer and into the fall season.
A 38.7% increase in Victoria Real Estate sales over last month indicates a positive shift for our market – an increase in sales for Victoria Real Estate July 2020 (979 properties sold) compared to last July 2019 (706). Overall inventory is just below last year’s numbers, with 2,653 active listings this July 2020 – a 10% decrease from July 2019 but a continuous positive increase (1.7%) from June 2020 where the month ended with 2,696 active listings!
“If we look at the numbers alone, June and July were unseasonably busy months and the number of sales this month are on the higher end of our market for a typical July,” says Victoria Real Estate Board President Sandi-Jo Ayers. “But we are not in a typical season. We cannot derive an ongoing trend nor forecast by looking at activity because we know the market is subjected to unusual factors amidst a health crisis. Our spring market was delayed because of the pandemic. It is likely that our spring demand moved into summer now that folks are moving around our community more freely. Time will tell if these factors are resulting in a very compressed cycle of activity or if this trend will persist in the fall.”
Condos in Victoria
We saw an increase in condo sales this July 2020 with 239 condos sold in Greater Victoria – an 11% increase over the same period last year with 215 condo sales in July 2019. The number of active condo listings in July 2020 was 769, a 24% increase compared to the 619 active condo listings in July 2019. Properties are spending almost an equal number of days on the market compared to this time last year (average days on market this month at 43 days, compared to 42 days in July 2019).
Looking Forward
“A big factor in our market right now is that we continue to see this very long term, very low supply of inventory which puts pressure on our market and prices,” adds Ayers. “Though we had a good number of new listings come to market this month, many of those listings were snapped up by buyers. Our average active listings for July over the past ten years is 3,767 but our current local inventory is more than a thousand properties less than that. Right now we have a lot of demand for single family homes – without the numbers to meet demand – prospective buyers are often entering into multiple offer, competitive situations or are unable to find appropriate properties. It’s a challenging market to navigate, but your REALTOR® is standing by to help should you wish to discuss a strategy to buy or sell a home in our current market.”
To read the full Victoria Real Estate July 2020 statistics report from the Victoria Real Estate Board, check it out here.
If you are looking to purchase or sell a property in the current market, or in the future, get in touch with The Condo Group Real Estate, reimagined as Island Realm Real Estate for expert insight and advice at 250-382-6636.
