Although the number of homes for sale in the Fraser Valley dropped to levels not seen in 40 years, that didn’t cause house prices to budge by much in July in Langley.
Langley saw a summer slowdown in housing sales, which is typical in a region where the busiest home buying season is spring.
However, sales were still higher than normal for this time of year, and the number of people putting their houses up for sale plunged compared to the year before.
“For fourteen months we have been in a seller’s market for Fraser Valley detached homes, townhomes, and condos – and yet for the last four months, new listings in our region have been decreasing,” said Larry Anderson, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.
In Langley, 123 detached houses sold in July, down just 4.7 per cent from the same month last year, but down 20.1 per cent from the frenzied summer of 2020.
Just 122 houses were listed for sale in July, a 33.3 per cent drop from a year earlier.
The trend was less extreme with townhouses and condos, but moving in the same direction.
In July, 107 townhouses and 127 condos sold, down 18.9 per cent and up 6.7 per cent respectively from the same month last year.
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READ MORE: Sales cool slightly, prices still going up in Langley housing market
New listings declined for both types of home, with 121 townhouses listed, down 21.4 per cent year-over-year, and 151 condos listed for sale, down 19.7 per cent.
The same trends were affecting the whole region, from North Delta through to Abbotsford.
“To put our market in perspective, we just came off the third highest sales for July in the last ten years, while home buyers looking to invest in the Fraser Valley had the same level of inventory to choose from that they had forty years ago,” said Baldev Gill, CEO of the FVREB.
And yet with the market tightening and housing in short supply, prices barely budged.
The benchmark price for a detached house in Langley was still up 29.7 per cent from the same month last year, the result of a buying frenzy that ran through the entire second half of 2020.
But the benchmark – which is the average price for a “typical” Langley home – declined 0.4 per cent from June, sitting at $1.377 million.
Townhouse benchmark prices rose 2.1 per cent month-over-month to $706,100, and condo benchmarks were up 0.4 per cent from June, to $472,400.
Meanwhile, buyers were being more cautious, measured by the number of days the average detached house was on the market.
In June, it took just 17 days on average to sell a single-family detached house, 12 days for townhouses, and 21 days for condos.
In July, detached houses took 26 days to sell, townhouses took 15, and condos took 24.
READ ALSO: SFU housing expert explains Langley’s surprising real estate numbers
Have a story tip? Email: matthew.claxton@langleyadvancetimes.com
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