As expected, large number of high end sales causes average price to jump while overall sales continue to lag

If you follow the comments section of the website Vancouver Condo Info, the chatter the past two weeks has been about the dichotomy in real estate sales for August.

While total sales for the month was very low, there were a large number of high end sales.

As ZRH2YVR noted on August 22nd, there had only been 5 real estate transactions in July over $5M (9,948,000 - 6,850,000 - 6,300,000 - 5,830,000 - and 5,000,000).

In August, as of the 22nd, there had already been 8... and one of them for $12,200,000.

(For the record they were 5,800,000 - 8,950,000 - 12,200,000 - 6,250,000 - 6,180,000 - 9,180,000 and 6,800,000)

Meanwhile in Richmond, sales were picking up. Virtually all were below assessed value, but we seem to be seeing a price point were the pent-up demand has started to rush in.

The daily total of sales hit a record streak on Friday of 12 consecutive days where the total was less than 100.

This combination of low sales and an increase in high end sales means the average was sure to spike... and spike it has.

Prices never go up in a straight line and they don't go down in a straight line either.

And the bump in the average price will be a significant factor in keeping pressure off the Federal Government from backing off on it's recent changes and upcoming OFSI changes.

As realtor Larry Yatkowsky noted:

Vancouver’s detached average home prices ricocheted off the cross bar to score an average price goal of $1,142,237 – a price not seen since January and March of this year.

The great thing is that the real estate industry, desperate to hilight positive news, will promote these figures as a sign the market is not dropping.

It will be done to calm fears that it is... and it will also hamstring attempts to pressure the Federal Government to back off.

As Yatkowsky notes in another post, the statistics paint the Vancouver market as "being different."

But a handful of high end sales cannot hide the fact overall sales are abysmal.

Market forces continue to play out and the spinning of the news can only encourage those who have allowed listings to lapse to now quickly jump back in.

It should be interesting to watch September listings numbers to see what comes next.

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