Stats show housing supply down from a decade ago

The latest sales figures show a slight increase in the number of homes for sale, though the demand for housing continues to affect the cost of living in our region.

According to the Victoria Real Estate Board, there were 2,490 listings at the end of August. That's up 2.9% from the previous month and higher than the 2,137 homes listed in August 2022.

"The focus in our market and by all levels of government needs to be on opening up more supply," VREB chair Graden Sol said in a news release. "Our inventory levels, though up from last year, are still too low to support a well-balanced market. A decade ago, we saw over 5,000 active listings in August."

Sol noted that many listings were for single family homes, which are at the top of the residential market.

"Missing middle homes, such as townhomes and condos represented only 37.1% of listings for sale," Sol said. "Townhomes, which in my experience are what a lot of families hope to purchase, represented only 9.8% of the residential properties for sale. This imbalance in the mix of housing options means there is the potential for more price pressure on these types of properties because demand is concentrated at more attainable price points."

The benchmark value for a single family home in August was $1,323,900. That 's up $5,100 from July but down $3,800 from last summer.