Image: Mike Vanden Bosch / Pattison Media / A house for sale at 5408 Peach Road in Chilliwack. The Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board says real estate sales continue to surge in April based on 277 home sales through the MLS system. It's a significant increase from the 120 homes that were sold in January 2023 and 194 homes that were sold in February 2023 in CADREB. The benchmark price of a single-family home in CADREB is $846,200.
Chilliwack-area home sales

Chilliwack-area home sales continue to surge in April, prices going up

May 4, 2023 | 9:07 AM

CHILLIWACK — After a relatively frigid start to the year in which only 120 homes were sold in January, the number of homes sold through the MLS system of the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board totaled 277 units in April 2023.

“Home sales continue to rise at an accelerating pace on a month-over-month basis,” said Brad Latham, president of the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board. “Year-over-year declines are shrinking as we move past the one-year mark of the peak in sales activity, and we’ll likely see year-over-year gains start to show up in the next month or two, which will then grow larger as we pass last year’s downturn. In the meantime, a lack of new supply entering the market is once again putting upward pressure on prices.”

Home sales were 11.4 per cent below the five-year average and 17 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of April.

CADREB says the MLS Home Price Index (HPI) tracks price trends far more accurately than is possible using average or median price measures. The overall MLS HPI composite benchmark price was $706,300 in April 2023, a substantial decline of 17.7 per cent compared to April 2022, but up over the past 3 months by 4.2 per cent.

The benchmark price for single-family homes was $846,200, a sharp decrease of 17.7 per cent on a year-over-year basis in April however, it was an increase of 3.2 per cent from 3 months ago. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $599,100, down sharply by 16.3 per cent compared to a year earlier, and increase 7.8 per cent from 3 months ago. The benchmark apartment price was $394,400, a substantial decrease of 14 per cent from year-ago levels.

The average price of homes sold in April 2023 was $735,614, a substantial decline of 17.9 per cent from April 2022. However, the average price of homes sold is showing steady but small increases since December 2022.

Months of inventory numbered 3.1 at the end of April 2023, down from the 3.4 months recorded at the end of April 2022, and below the long-run average of 3.5 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.