
September 2012 brought with it some great, dry weather, and also a bit more activity in the Sooke housing market than both August 2012, and September of last year. Prices remain fairly stable year-over-year. While it’s not booming, there was a noticeable uptick in activity and 50% more single family dwelling sales than last month. Let’s dive in and look at the numbers. I had multiple offers on one listing at the end of the month. It’s still conditional, so its sale will count towards October’s statistics.
September 2011:
- New listings, all property types: 73 (49 single family dwellings)
- Sales, single family dwellings (SFD): 11
- Sales, all property types: 17
- Lowest price: a manufactured home at $21,000 (lowest price SFD was a cottage in Port Renfrew at $212,000)
- Highest price: $535,000 for a new home on an acreage in The Woods subdivision.
- Average price, SFD: $379,173
- Median price, SFD: $354,900
- Active listings, all property types: 446 (304 single family dwellings)
- Sale price breakdown (SFD): $200K-$300K: 3 | $300K-$400K: 4 | $400K-$500K: 1 | $500K-$600K: 3
- Average Days On Market: 149
- New listings, all property types: 78 (58 SFD)
- Sales, SFD: 15
- Sales, all property types: 22
- Lowest price: a condo on Kaltasin Road at $87,000
- Highest price: a 5500 sqft home on 3 acres at $875,000
- Average price, SFD: $414,413 (skewed upwards by 2 higher end sales)
- Median price, SFD: $350,000
- Active listings, all property types: 428 (304 SFD)
- Sale price breakdown (SFD): $200K-$300K: 1 | $300K-$400K: 8 | $400K-$500K: 4 | $500K-600K: 0 | $600K – $700K: 1 | $800K+: 1
- Average Days on Market: 127
Here again is my standard disclaimer about average price statistics. In a small market such as Sooke with wide variability in sale prices, the average becomes fairly unreliable as a measure of housing activity. The median is a little better, and if you look at the chart below for the last year, you’ll see that despite spiking a few months to $425,000, the median house price in Sooke has been relatively flat for the past year.

Overall, I think the market will continue to outperform 2011 in terms of sales volume. It’s far from crazy busy out there, but the point I like to make, month after month, is that if your house is priced well, it will sell. It just might take a while (look at that days on market stat)!
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