The answer to this question will not do you much good unless you ask for details of the specific market segment you are looking at. Housing markets are segmented by many factors and usually determined by demand. The demand for three bedroom ranches in East Vancouver is different from, say the demand for $800,000 two stories in Camas.
Weather you are a buyer or seller it is important to know how the house you are trying to buy or sell stacks up against the rest in the particular market segment where you are competing.
Since price range is usually the first limiting factor it will help to first segment by price range. If we take a look at the pending chart below, we can see that in the price rang of $150-$200 thousand 23 homes sold last week and there were only 17 added to the inventory. This means that we used up some inventory that had been unsold the week prior.
Move over one column to the TA column and you will see that we have a total of 282 in inventory. If the trend continues we will continue to shrink this inventory and begin to see those prices climb. The $250-$300 price range is in a similar situation, while the $200-$250 price range had inventory added. This chart only gives us one week of numbers but if we watch these numbers we can usually predict where the prices are headed.
At Scott Mikel & Associates we have been keeping track of these numbers for about three years now and its interesting to see where the market has been and where it’s going.
Price range is only one segment of the market but it is usually the most limiting. Area and style will also play a part. Downtown Vancouver has had some interesting changes as the market has begun to shift.
Next week I will discuss another important market segment, location.
