Sluggish home sales, lower prices define January real estate sales in Chilliwack area

CHILLIWACK — A substantial decline in the number of homes sold in January 2023 compared to January 2022 came as no surprise to the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board.

Not only are home sales slower, prices are dropping, and more homes are on the market compared to historical data.

In a news release Monday (Feb. 6), real estate transactions during January 2023 fell by over 50 per cent compared to the year prior, and the benchmark price of a single-family home fell to $820,100, a substantial dip of 23.8 per cent from January 2022.

“To nobody’s surprise, January came in at historically low levels to start the year off, posting the lowest level for the month since 2019. However, looking through the seasonality we are seeing a very small upturn in sales activity, which at the very least is better than a continuing decline,” said Brad Latham, president of the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board. “Overall supply levels have rebounded to where they stood back in 2019 after falling to record lows in 2021, and with more plentiful supply on the market the balance has shifted into buyer’s territory. Benchmark home prices are still declining but the monthly trend shows signs of plateauing. For sales and prices it looks like it will be low and slow for the time being until sidelined buyers have recovered from the interest rate shocks and the market uncertainty has settled.”