Skip to content

Real estate market stays soft

The real estate market on southern Vancouver Island is experiencing a softening and home sellers are encouraged to remain patient.

The real estate market on southern Vancouver Island is experiencing a softening and home sellers are encouraged to remain patient.

Local Pemberton Holmes realtor Daniela Novasadova, with 20 years of experience, says, “you have to be optimistic.”

She said the lagging market is due to the national and world economic situation and people who are reticent to make changes at this time.

She said there is lots of supply, with many developments at a standstill, and various other factors. Sooke is a place that is at the end of the road and is also a place where people want to come to retire, and currently it is a buyers’ market.

“Four years ago it was at an all time high, it’s always up and down in real estate,” she said. People are also taking their properties off the market until the values increase.

The numbers tell the story. According to the Victoria real Estate Board sales were up 16 per cent in September 2011 compared to sales in the same month in 2010, although the numbers were down from August 2011.

Sales over the entire year are down about 10 per cent from last year.

Sooke has a different situation in real estate sales as there are no condominiums and this is what many buyers purchase if they are downsizing. Condos are also the choice of younger buyers who want to be closer to their work. Condos account for the largest number of sales in any real estate sector.

Sooke had 11 sales of single family homes with an average price of $294,164 down from a six-month average of $341,000. The highest priced single family homes are in Oak Bay where an average price is $962,871; Langford $465,463; Colwood $474,093. Almost all sectors showed a decrease in the average price.

Prices on townhouses in Sooke remained fairly steady with an average price of $317,667 down from a six-month average of $318,718.

The average price for manufactured home rose to $87,000 from a six-month low of $57,488 and a median price of $25,000. The average price of lots and acreages rose to $229,375 from a six-month low of $190,133.