![\"vancouver-housing-market\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/vancouver-housing-market.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0Alejandro Luengo<\/a>\/Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nAs of September 15th, there have been 1,755 homes sold in the Vancouver region, up 73 percent from the same period in 2019 and 145 percent from 2018.<\/p>\n
The result is also significantly higher than the number of sales recorded in the first half of August, which saw 1,304 sales at its mid-point.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cJust when we thought the summer was busy, September has gone up another level,\u201d wrote Vancouver broker Kevin Skipworth, Partner at Dexter Realty.<\/p>\n
Skipworth, who published the September mid-month figures for the Vancouver region late this week, pointed to an increase in new listings hitting the market as a major factor in driving sales higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe increase in the number of new listings is helping drive sales in a market where buyers have been competing for properties to purchase, especially after two years of sellers being unwilling partners and holding back on listing their properties,\u201d Skipworth wrote.<\/p>\n
Not only has the strength seen in the first half of the month surpassed activity levels recorded in the last two years, Skipworth wrote that the current pace of sales is well above the 10-year average for the month and has the market on track for its best September result since 2015. But it gets even better than that.<\/p>\n
If the current rate of sales holds, September 2020 will look awfully similar to the soaring heights seen in the Vancouver market in spring 2017, before policy shifts at multiple levels of government put a damper on market activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile COVID-19 is still very much gripping our lives, buying and selling homes continues at a pace no one expected,\u201d said Skipworth. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just pent-up demand from 6 weeks of a complete slow-down in March and April, this is a real estate market that continues on its own fundamentals. A real estate market almost entirely made up of local buyers,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n