Crazy West Side prices? Or skewed average prices?

We all know the prices in the West Side of Vancouver are crazy - many people think buying in Kitsilano, Point Grey, Dunbar and Kerrisdale
has now become impossible - and that may be true for a lot of people.  HOWEVER the prices are not as high as the statistics being presented would suggest.  The scary stats  are hurting buyers (fear) and sellers (creating unrealistic expectations).  We were just discussing in our office meeting how many people are now saying  "My house should be worth...." because of the stats the Real Estate Board has been putting out.

For example, this week the Board reports that the average price in Vancouver's west side is $2.6 million dollars.  This has led to some people thinking that if they have an "average" house that it should be worth over $2.5 million dollars... but what really happened was the average was impacted by things like a few sales in the $10-20 million dollar range which has screwed up  the numbers, making the average price crazy... The "numbers" also say that condos have gone up an average of 10% but many are actually selling for less than what people paid for them if they bought in the past few years... In Vancouver's east side, there is a similar problem: average price is $912,000ish but that is again because some areas are pulling that up - the "average" house in many areas is a lot lower......

Bottom line is that the prices of homes in Vancouver is very high but in many cases still doable and price for selling homes needs to be looked at based on comparable sales in the area - not based on all sales in the west side! This same rule applies in Vancouver's east side (and anywhere else!).  If you would like to know the market value of your Vancouver home, please call or email me.


Patricia Houlihan
phoulihan@vancouverviews.ca
(604)376-7653