Housing supply continued to increase as prices flatlined or began dropping in Langley and the Fraser Valley in December, statistics released by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) showed.
The year ended in Langley with the benchmark price for a single-family home having barely budged over 12 months.
The benchmark price in December 2018 was $1,003,000, up 0.1 per cent from $1,002,200 in the same month in 2017.
The number of houses sold slipped again, a trend seen over the latter half of the year, and the number of homes listed for sale was up sharply.
There were 55 sales of single family homes in Langley in December, down 34.5 per cent from the year before.
A total of 40 townhouses sold, down 31 per cent, and 54 condos sold, down 12.9 per cent.
One of the notable trends at the end of the year is the swelling inventory of condos and townhouses.
Active listings of townhouses in December 2018 were 898 units in the Fraser Valley area, up 133.9 per cent from the year before.
Condos were up even more, with 1,121 condos for sale, a 208 per cent increase over the 364 that were for sale in December 2017.
Langley was ahead of the trend when it came to increasing stocks of multi-family housing.
In December 2018, Langley had 162 townhouses for sale, a 224 per cent increase over 2017’s December numbers.
There were 192 condos on the market, a 291 per cent jump from the 49 for sale the previous December.
According to the FVREB, 2018 saw 15,586 sales of all kinds, a 30.2 per cent decrease compared to 2017’s 22,338 sales.
It was the lowest total sales for the Fraser Valley since 2013. The total dollar value of real estate transactions dropped from $15.7 billion in 2017 to $11.8 billion in 2018.