For a short month, February seemed to drag on a bit around the Ayres household – must have been that one extra day. Here is my second instalment of real estate statistics for Sooke, for the month of February 2012. There is definitely a vibe of increased activity in the local marketplace, with properties being snapped up or at the very least, showing activity increasing. I was even involved in a multiple offer situation on a property in Sooke, which hasn’t happened for quite some time. Price remains to be key, and this is reflected in the average price and other numbers. Let’s see how February 2012 compared to February 2011:
February 2011:
- New listings, all property types: 96 (54 single family dwellings)
- Sales, single family dwellings (SFD): 14
- Sales, all property types: 19
- Lowest price: a manufactured home at $25,000
- Highest price: $579,000
- Average price, SFD: $430,129
- Median price, SFD: $416,950
- Active listings, all property types: 380
- Sale price breakdown (SFD): $200K-$300K: 1 | $300K-$400K: 5 | $400K-$500K: 5 | $500K-$600K: 3
- New listings, all property types: 79 (56 SFD)
- Sales, SFD: 20
- Sales, all property types: 26
- Lowest price: a manufactured home at $28,000
- Highest price: a new home at $630,000
- Average price, SFD: $385,670
- Median price, SFD: $369,000
- Active listings, all property types: 343
- Sale price breakdown (SFD): $200K-$300K: 1 | $300K-$400K: 12 | $400K-$500K: 6 | $500K-600K: 1 | $600K +: 1
Again, I caution using average and median prices as an indicator of pricing trends in Sooke. The relatively low number of sales each month, and the wide, wide variety of different property values makes for an extremely unreliable indicator. Using these indicators, it would appear that prices are way down year-over-year, but I don’t think that is the case. By the same analysis, prices have jumped from January to February this year. The important thing to take away is that there were more sales this month than last, and more sales this February than last February. Buyers are definitely coming out to look – I have been very busy with calls from first-time buyers, in particular. It is also encouraging that there were fewer new listings than February 2011, and fewer total active listings.
If you have any questions about how these statistics were calculated, what they mean, or would like to know what your property is worth in today’s market, just give me a call at 250-885-0512 or send me an email