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Lingering uncertainty and fragile confidence - Coal Harbour and Downtown listing and sales stats through June 30 2010


Blog by Mike Cook | July 20th, 2010


Stats for the month of June 2010

Sorry for the delay in getting these into the Blog. Have a look at listing and sales stats through June 30 2010. There was a little bit of good news for sellers in terms of inventory levels coming down a little in most downtown areas while the number of sales increased slightly. However, in Coal Harbour while we saw an approx decrease in listings of 9%, we saw an approx decrease in sales of 42% from the previous month.  Have a look:

CH Monthly sales stats.xls

Downtown Vancouver monthly listings and sales.xls

Coal Harbour sales are the slowest in all of Downtown Vancouver

Why has Coal Harbour suffered more than other areas of Downtown? I propose the following: Coal Harbour is driven by an international clientele who are more directly affected by global economic macros and most properties are out of reach for average Vancouverites. The main feature of the current  global economic landscape seems to be lingering uncertainty and that's bad for the fragile confidence that currently exists amongst many investors. The result is a sort of buyer-paralysis which is being exacerbated by rampant over-pricing in the luxury condo sector.

Conclusion

It all boils down to this: The motivation of many prospective luxury condo sellers to sell at anywhere except the very peak of the market is low. For many this is the case even when a sale in the current market would produce handsome gains. On the flip side, Buyers don't want to pay now if they believe they can pay less later - makes sense. Unless motivation picks op on both sides, luxury condo sales will continue to be slow.

My Advice for Sellers

If you are not motivated to sell in the current market, then do your neighbors a favor and get off the market. If you are not currently listed and you don't like where the market is, don't list! All anyone is doing by being on the market overpriced is adding to the supply problem and causing motivated sellers to cut their prices. This hurts al sellers at the end of the day.

My Advice for Buyers

There are motivated sellers out there. With the right research and with the assistance of the right realtor you should be able to find some good deals right now.

Contact Shaun when it's time to buy or sell.