Well, we noticed it staring waaay back in February but interest in BC real estate has picked up from the slow summer and fall of 2008. At Waterfront West, we have the advantage of being able to see the interest pick up before the sales start to come through. Back in February, we noticed an increased number of inquiries going through the site. Now this is fairly normal for February, but this time, the inquiries seemed to be more serious than the ones from last Spring. Now that the stats are coming out, we are starting to see the sales as these serious buyers  make deals.

In Oak Bay, one of the most prestigious areas in Victoria, 50% of the listings are selling, while in some other popular areas (Fairfield, Maplewood, Glanford, etc..) well over 50% and in some cases 100% of listings are selling. Even we are shocked by news of bidding wars so soon. In Vancouver, Ozzie Jurock mentions a case of a lot coming up for sale in Kitsilano for $800, 000 and going through a bidding war between 15 different buyers to sell for $840, 000. Meanwhile, here in the Comox Valley there we are aware of at least one bidding war last week on an under priced property.

A good hint for judging the market in any area you are looking to buy is to go on Twitter and do a search for your key words. Here is what we turned up by searching Vancouver real estate today:

"There were 114 New Listings and 90 Sales (Sell/List of 79%) of homes in the Vancouver real estate market on Wednesday April 29th, 2009."

"Another day with nearly 1:1 list to sale ratio in the City of Vancouver real estate market. 6 calls already on my new east van house listing"

Victoria Real Estate:

"Our Real Estate Board is showing 747 Unconditional Sales on MLS in April in Victoria..Buyers are taking advantage of lower Interest rates"

This gives you real time results of what people are talking about in real estate. 

The real question is, is this activity just a blip in the market? A short Spring pick-up before we go back down hill? It's hard to know, but if you are selling, I would say don't get too greedy. The buyers out there today are quite savvy-after all they waited out that crazy market until prices came back down and they are buying at a time of very low interest rates.  Make sure you price competitively and that your home shines. If buying, the competition is out there for the good deals in larger cities so keep this in mind. In many areas of BC, you still have the upper hand for now, but who knows for how long?

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According to a BCREA news release this week, gas and food prices are slowing home sales as buyers take a wait and see approach to purchasing in the current housing market. Despite residential unit sales decreasing 31% from May 2007, overall average prices in B.C. are still up 6 percent from lastyear. In the meantime, major banks raised their mortgage rates by 1/2 percent last week, which may add to the slow down.

So what does this mean for the recreational market? Judging on traffic to the site (which is still well above last year's numbers) and email inquiries to our sellers, well-priced properties are still creating quite a stir. We have also seen this in the local market in Courtenay. I believe the key to selling right now is for sellers to price their home competitively. It seems there are still a lot of buyers out there who are taking their time to purchase, unless they see a home/property they feel is exceptional value. When a property like this comes up, it still gets snapped up and in some cases, there are even still bidding wars.

So what is a seller to do? If you purchased a few years ago, no doubt, your home value has increased a large percentage already so make sure your property is show room perfect, follow some staging tips, and price competitively. Before you list, go to some open houses in the neighbourhood and check out the competition. Imagine yourself as a buyer-would your home stand out as an exceptional value when compared to the others?

Finally, advertise, advertise, advertise (on Waterfront West-subliminal message). But seriously, make sure that your home is out there-on the internet (in more places than one preferably), in the local real estate paapers and anywhere else you can think of. For recreational properties, reaching an international audience may start to become more important again as local buying slows down. Our stats show, the top 5 countries for buyers (besides Canada) for waterfront real estate in BC are US, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands so if your property is already on our site conrgatulations, you are reaching this audience.

All in all, it's still a great market to be in right now. There are still a lot of buyers milling about but with more properties to choose from and a better chance to make a more informed purchasing decision. Properties that show well and are priced competitively are still selling, so in most cases, sellers can still realize excellent profits given that they purchased their properties a few years back.

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