As we begin a new year, and look back on a challenging 2020, we want to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude for the support of our clients, families, friends and colleagues. Throughout all of the challenges of 2020, we have continued our passion for providing unparalleled service and results for our clients, and we could not have done this without your continued support. Despite the limitations that the pandemic brought forth, we have built stronger connections with our clients and our community, and we were even able to achieve our best annual sales figures in over 18 years! With the trust and opportunities that our clients gave to us, we were successful in selling 116 homes (over $163,000,000 in total sales volume) in 2020, which means 116 clients achieved their real estate goals.
Many of our clients were able to purchase homes successfully in a very challenging sellers market last year. We consistently leveraged relationships with many of the other top agents in the city to make this happen. We have found over the past 18 years that relationships are the key to purchasing real estate in Vancouver. Other brokers and their clients tend to work with agents that have a successful track record selling other homes in their area. These clients and agents tend to give our offers preference over agents and buyers that they don’t have a past relationship with.
In terms of our real estate market, 2020 was a year filled with ups and downs: January and February were extremely busy, with demand strongly outpacing supply, and that trend continued until mid-March when we saw the first serious lockdown restrictions come into effect. The initial ‘shock and awe’ of the lockdown created a standstill in our market, with very few transactions occurring, and that was consistent until the May long weekend when the government began easing the restrictions. This was the launchpad for one of the busiest stretches of real estate we’ve ever experienced. According to the The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, residential home sales in 2020 were 22.1% higher than in 2019, and 25.7% higher compared with 2018.
With desires for more space for working from home and less common and shared spaces, there began a mass exodus out of densified neighbourhoods, particularly downtown Vancouver. This resulted in soaring demand for 1/2 duplexes and detached homes throughout the city, and fueled by historically low interest rates allowing buyers to stretch themselves to acquire the additional space they desired. While this was the trend throughout the balance of 2020, we did experience renewed demand for downtown condos towards the end of the year as buyers and investors regained confidence with the vaccine on the horizon and felt there were opportunities to purchase condos at discounted prices that we haven’t seen in many years.
Traditionally, December is the quietest month of the year in real estate, yet it was one of the busiest months of year for us, and things continued right through the holiday season. To put this into perspective, sales in December 2020 were 53.4% higher compared with December 2019!
Looking ahead to this year, there are several variables at play that will have impact on our real estate market: extremely low interest rates, the COVID-19 vaccine and how that impacts foreign buyers’ (particularly buyers from the US and Asia) ability to travel and became active once again in our market, the overall economic impact from the pandemic, and low inventory levels in our market. With continued government support and spending to help offset the economic damage from the pandemic, we anticipate that 2021 will be another extremely active real estate year in the lower Mainland, with the supply of homes for sale and low interest rates being the two critical factors supporting this trend.
We understand this is alot of information to digest and welcome a call to discuss your real estate goals and plans for 2021 and beyond. Feel free to book a quick zoom call or meeting at your home and we look forward to connecting with you.
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We continue to appreciate all of the trust referrals from family and friends that you continue to send our way. If there’s anything we can do to help return the favour don’t hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Patrick, Devin, Jenny, Noah, Matt and Susan.