Hi,

As our province begins to reopen and people are finding their way in this new normal, we are seeing business start to ramp up again. We are incredibly grateful to be out and about doing what we love. Although this new way of business might look a little bit different, we are still smiling under our masks! 

A lot of the people who had expressed to us that they were waiting to see what this pandemic would bring before listing are starting to get their homes on the market, and we are seeing a promising amount of traffic through the homes with favorable offers coming in. 

If you are concerned about having traffic through your home or walking through a strangers home, here are some of our new procedures we have put into place to keep everyone safe:

• We can provide masks for all parties while viewing a potential home and ask that any Buyers Agents bringing clients through your home do the same
• Any viewings will require that only the Agent touch surfaces (open doors, light switches, cabinets ect.) and use a disinfectant wipe to clean all touched surfaces upon exit.
• Hand Sanitizer can be provided if required
•  We will limit the amount of people during any showings to only those that need to be present on first showings, if further interest still, second showings can be booked for any additional family members.
• We offer virtual showings and open houses! We can either live stream to social media and do a video walk through for everyone or we can facetime and walk through for a one on one showing.
• We ask clients to do a drive by of the home whenever possible to ensure they like the area and "first impression" of the home. 

For an idea of the effect COVID-19 has had on our showing traffic for the month of May we have a comparison of the showings request for all of our Vancouver Island Board area:
 

• In May 2019 there were 21,353 showing requests while May 2020 seen almost a 50% decrease in traffic at 11,699 showing requests.
• The showings seem to pick up as the month went on, the first week in May 2020 seen 1939 showing requests and the last week of May had 3270.

Now lets get into the full market stats for the Nanaimo area:

Total Unit Sales

• There were 137 total units sold this May in the Nanaimo area, which is down only 31% from this time last year.
• There were 950 active listings this May, compared with 999 this period last year, so the inventory hasn't been affected too much.
• There were 322 new properties listed in May this year which is a 31% decrease from the 468 listed last May.
• The average days to sell is sitting at 32 days, which is up from the 29 days we were at last May.

*Note, these totals include ALL Real Estate divisions including IC&I*
 

Single Family Homes

• The average sale price of a Single Family home in May has gone down 2%, its currently sitting at $578,514
• May saw 310 active Single Family Home listings while this time last year had 382.
• Average days to sell this May was 26 days, which up slightly from the 24 days we were sitting at last May. 
• There were 70 sales reported for May this year in this category which is down almost 50% from the 136 last May.

 
Apartment Style Condos

• Condo prices are virtually unchanged with the average sale price for May 2020 sitting at $291,620, only a $20 difference from last May's average price.
• May of this year saw 154 active condo listings which is up substantially from the 87 we had this time last year. 
• Days on market is sitting at 46 days for May of 2020 which is up substantially from the 21 days average for last May.  
• There were 23 reported sales for May of this year in this category, comparable to the 29 reported sales last May.

 
Vacant Lots

• The average sale price of a vacant lot is up 9% from this time last year. It’s currently sitting at $295,000.
• This time last year there were 130 active lot listings, there is slightly less choice this year with that number sitting at 100.
• The average days to sell a Lot for this time last year was 32 days. This May that number is down to 32 days.
• There was only 1 reported sale for May of this year in this category.

 
Average Sale Info by Neighbourhoods

• The highest average sale price was $720,000 in the Lower Lantzville area
• The lowest average sale price is $397,333 in the Old City area.
• North Nanaimo saw the most sales again, in May with 13 sales.
• Brechin Hill was the only neighborhood that did not have any reported sales for May 2020.

As always, if you want to know what this means for you or there is something we can help you out with please call us at any time! We always love to hear from you!

We look forward to talking soon