A few years ago, my partner and I went looking at condos to buy in Burnaby.
The real estate market was, uh, hot at the time. Scorching hot. Like Los Angeles on an August day hot.
For example, I recall sitting in the office of a real estate agent waiting to submit an offer – one of 15 offers submitted at the same time.
These offers were expected to be free of any subjects, including inspections, and well over the asking price.
It was ridiculous and dangerous. Buying real estate without an inspection is pure madness.
Well, that madness appears to have returned to Burnaby real estate.
“I call it multiple offer madness,” a Burnaby real estate agent told me as we chatted (at a distance) in a local coffee shop. “Things have heated up.”
How hot is the Burnaby real estate market?
From October to December 2020, detached housing sales in Burnaby skyrocketed 28% compared to the same three months in 2019, according to the latest data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). Sales of attached homes, such as townhouses, jumped 27% during the same period.
As for prices, December prices in Burnaby East jumped 14.3% compared with December 2019, while Burnaby North went up 10.6% and Burnaby South 5.7%.
Houses in Greater Vancouver are receiving subject free offers sight unseen. pic.twitter.com/ECNc2fiqL5
— Steve Saretsky (@SteveSaretsky) January 26, 2021
Residential sales surged 53.4% year over year last month to a hit a new all-time record in the region, according to the REBGV.
A total of 3,093 units were sold in December 2020, up from the 2,016 sales recorded the same month a year earlier.
It also marks a 0.9% increase from November 2020.
The latest gains were 57.7% above the 10-year December sales average.
For the year, the region tallied a total of 30,944 home sales. That’s up 22.1% from the 25,351 sales recorded in 2019 and represents a 25.7% increase compared with the 24,618 sales in 2018.
However, the 2020 sales are still 2.8% below the 10-year sales average.
This decline comes after different levels of government began introducing measures to cool down white-hot markets in Vancouver and Toronto.
But the pandemic has brought on measures from the Bank of Canada to keep the economy chugging, including record-low interest rates.
The benchmark price for all residential properties, including condos and detached homes, across Metro Vancouver reached $1,047,400 by the end of 2020.
That’s up 5.4% from a year earlier.
- With files from Tyler Orton, Business in Vancouver
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
