January 2025 Market Outlook
In 2024, the Bank of Canada cut interest rates, but it didn’t really help home buyers in the Fraser Valley. They faced the lowest sales in ten years! The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board logged a whopping 35,698 new listings but only managed to sell 14,570 homes. That’s a 1% drop from 2023 and a big 24% under the 10-year average. Surrey was the star of the show, making up 51% of the sales, followed by Langley and Abbotsford. Even though prices dipped a bit, buying a home was still a tough gig. By the end of the year, the average Benchmark home price was sitting at $965,000, which was 2% lower than last year and 4% off its peak back in March.
“While the Fraser Valley saw overall balanced market conditions for most of 2024, the low levels of buying and selling activity reflected a challenging year for many as would-be buyers waited for affordability to improve,” said Baldev Gill, CEO of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board. “Interest rate cuts by the Bank of Canada along with recent government policies aimed at boosting overall housing supply and improving affordability, should help to increase market conditions in 2025.”
