The region-wide median across all types combined edged up over the year, but that is due to a higher proportion of detached homes selling this spring rather than any single home type gaining value. Every property type in the region is, in fact, selling for less than a year ago.

New HouseSigma data (see infographic below) has found that the median detached home sold for $1,615,000 in May 2026, down 5.0% from May 2025; attached homes sold at a median of $947,000, down 3.4%; and condos at $642,000, down 2.5%.

Those declines have been easing, though. The year-over-year gap has narrowed steadily through the spring — on detached homes to about 5% from 10% in January, and on condos to under 3% from 9% — and all three home types edged up in median sale price from April to May. So, prices still sit below last year, but the slide is flattening, not deepening.

Monthly mortgage costs vs last year

Because the interest rate held in today’s announcement, those year-over-year lower prices flow straight through to lower monthly costs for buyers, instead of being offset by pricier borrowing.

At a representative fixed rate of about 4.1%, with 20% down and a 25-year amortization, the monthly payment on a median-priced condo runs roughly $2,740 a month, down from about $2,810 a year ago. An attached home is near $4,040, down from $4,185, and a detached home under the same theoretical conditions would be about $6,895, down from $7,255. (This ignores the fact that most detached home purchases are less reliant on financing than condos, due to factors such as equity accrual and wealth transfer.)

That said, this payment relief is modest, and it is entirely the lower home price doing the work. It is also rate-dependent: a single quarter-point increase, which markets see as possible later this year, would add about $71 a month to that condo payment, almost exactly what the past year’s price drop saved.

Prices down, sellers negotiating, rates frozen since October. If you’re waiting for a better time to buy, I’d love to know what you’re waiting for. The data is practically begging you. I’m just the messenger!

Jeremy Bator, leading HouseSigma agent in Lower Mainland of BC

Sale vs list prices

Buyers held the upper hand on negotiation as well. Across the region, 82.7% of homes sold below their asking price in May, with the typical sale closing about 2.58% under list, a gap of roughly $22,500. Only 9.1% of sales finished above asking.

The discounting reached every property type, if not evenly: detached homes sold furthest below list at a median of 2.96% under, condos at 2.55%, and attached homes nearest to asking at 2.06% under.

A handful of sales sat well outside that pattern. The largest percentage premium over asking went to a two-bedroom White Rock ocean-view condo built in 2020, listed at $699,900 and sold for $850,000, 21.4% above list and the kind of bidding that was rare in May. The biggest dollar amount achieved over list price was a modern detached home in Vancouver’s Cambie neighbourhood, which sold for $6 million, $511K over its asking price.

The steepest discount in percentage terms was a 1930-built home, likely a teardown, on a corner lot in New Westminster. It was listed at $1,300,000 and sold for $910,000, 30% below asking. And in dollar terms, a West Vancouver waterfront condo listed at $10,898,000 sold for $9,275,000, a cut of more than $1.6 million.

What it all means for buyers and sellers

For buyers, May was a reasonably good moment to act, and that continues into June. Prices sit below last year, most sellers are taking offers under asking, and borrowing costs are steady. But the price relief is leveling off rather than building: the year-over-year price gap has been closing, so holding out for much deeper discounts is a weaker bet than it was over the winter, while a rate increase would press on affordability from the other side. Condo buyers, typically the most reliant on financing a large portion of their home price, are the most exposed there.

For sellers, the month rewarded pricing to the current market over last year’s expectations, since homes sold below asking in every category and an above-list result was the exception.

The number worth watching from here is less about the listing price and more about the all-in monthly cost of ownership, which hinges on the path of interest rates as well as on where prices go next.

Check out the full Metro Vancouver May 2026 PriceWatch infographic below for more details and breakdowns by area and property type. Mouseover or touch the price chart points to reveal the full data.

Find all your market trends data for Metro Vancouver here and keep up to date with our BC real estate blog here.

The post Infographic: With BoC rate held, falling Metro Vancouver home prices have lowered monthly costs — for now appeared first on HouseSigma.

So, what does this actually feel like for buyers today, in terms of what you can now get for your hard-earned dollar compared with 2022?

Across the region’s 21 municipalities, the median detached home sale price in April 2026 was $1,600,000, down 15.8% from April 2022. Townhouses are at $868,000, down 13.2%, while condos are at $620,000, down 10.8%.

To show what those price declines truly feel like to buyers on the ground, we picked three price points ($2 million for a detached home, $900,000 for a townhouse, $600,000 for a condo) and pulled real April 2022 and April 2026 sales at each band to take a closer look at how the homes compare.

For each home type we examined two things: what your money gets you now compared with what the same money bought at the spring 2022 peak; and what today’s sample home would likely have cost you four years ago (i.e. what you’re saving from the peak). The results may surprise you!

Detached: What $2M buys you now

Metro Vancouver’s median detached price has fallen 15.8% since April 2022. Two real, fairly typical “Vancouver Special” home sales at around the $2 million mark show what that means for buyers.

2026 detached house: Just last month in April 2026, $2,010,000 bought 6372 Elgin Street in East Vancouver. The six-bed, four-bath home is 3,048 square feet and built in 1987. It had failed to sell at $2.39M in 2025; the seller relisted at $2.15M in March this year and accepted under ask after 28 days.

Details: $2,010,000 | 6 bed, 4 bath | 3,048 sqft | Built: 1987 | Sold: April 8, 2026

2022 detached house: Four years earlier, $1,978,000 was paid for 6702 Doman Street, also in East Vancouver. The five-bed, three-bath home was 2,608 square feet and built in 1982, and it needed more work than our first example. It listed at $1.88M and sold $98,000 over ask in 39 days.

Details: $1,978,000 | 5 bed, 3 bath | 2,608 sqft | Built: 1982 | Sold: April 29, 2022

What this means: For almost the same money in 2026, today’s buyer gets one more bedroom, 440 extra square feet, and a more updated home.

What you’re saving versus 2022: A fairly close April 2022 comparable to our 2026 sale, 7178 Culloden Street (a bit smaller at 2,756 square feet, a bit newer as a 1995 build), sold for $2,250,000. Which shows that buying a similar home today, such as Elgin Street, saves around $240,000. In fact, the typical (median) saving is $300,000 when looking at all detached sales in April 2026 ($1.6M) versus April 2022 ($1.9M) .

Townhouse: What $900K buys you now

Townhouses have softened slightly less than detached, with the regional median down 13.2%, but you can still get a lot more for your money than four years ago. The two sample townhouses we chose to demonstrate this are both in New Westminster, both move-in ready, and they sold within $5,000 of each other.

2026 townhouse: In April 2026, $905,000 bought 9-100 Wood Street: a riverfront townhouse with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, 1,554 square feet, built in 2014. The seller listed at $953,800 and accepted $48,800 under ask after three listing attempts.

Details: $905,000 | 3 bed, 3 bath | 1,554 sqft | Built: 2014 | Sold: April 21, 2026

2022 townhouse: Four years earlier, $910,000 was paid for 30-1010 Ewen Avenue: also three-bed, three-bath, but 1,313 square feet and built in 2004. It was listed at $899,000 and sold over ask in 50 days.

Details: $910,000 | 3 bed, 3 bath | 1,313 sqft | Built: 2004 | Sold: April 5, 2022

What this means: For the same money in 2026, today’s buyer gets 241 more square feet and a townhouse a decade newer with gorgeous finishes and river views.

What you’re saving versus 2022: A 2022 sale on the same riverfront street as our 2026 example, 28-188 Wood Street (nearly identical at 1,552 sqft, built 2017), went for $1,149,000. Which shows that buying that a very similar home in April 2026 can cost $244,000 less than in April 2022, a 21% saving. That said, the typical (median) saving when comparing all townhome sales across each period is $132K.

Condo: What $600K buys you now

Condos have been the most resilient at the median, with the regional median down 10.8% to $620,000. What that headline number misses is that Metro Vancouver condo sales volume fell 42% over the same window.

The clearest example the price-per-dollar shift comes from a single Vancouver building, 5665 Boundary Road, where two units sold four years apart.

2026 condo: In April 2026, $615,000 was paid for unit 519: a two-bed, one-bath, 744-square-foot apartment in this 2016-built tower. It sold at its $615,000 ask in 28 days.

Details: $615,000 | 2 bed, 1 bath | 744 sqft | Built: 2016 | Sold: April 20, 2026

2022 condo: In April 2022, $608,000 (just $7,000 less) bought unit 3204 in the same building: one bed, one bath, only 512 square feet, but much higher up in the building. It was listed at $568,000 and sold $40,000 over ask in 17 days.

Details: $608,000 | 1 bed, 1 bath | 512 sqft | Built: 2016 | Sold: April 14, 2022

What this means: For the same money in 2026, today’s buyer in the exact same building gets an extra bedroom and 232 additional square feet (although not such epic views), with both units in the same fairly new condition.

What you’re saving versus 2022: A spring 2022 sale in the same building, closer in size to our 2026 sample, (678 sqft, 2-bed/1-bath) but with more updated finishes, unit 1802 sold for $790,000. That puts our 2026 unit at $175,000 less for a slightly larger floor plan in the same building, albeit with less fancy decor. It’s worth noting that overall, the median saving on Metro Vancouver condos in April 2026 vs April 2022 is $75,000, when looking at all condo sales in both months.

“To buy a home in 2022 you needed a blindfold, a bidding war budget, and a prayer – and then we watched rates climb from 2.5% to nearly 6% in the same year. Today in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, prices are down roughly 10-15% from their peak, five-year fixed rates are sitting around 4%, and you actually get to sleep on a home before deciding. The market is still complicated, but for buyers right now, complicated looks a lot like opportunity.”

Jeremy Bator, leading HouseSigma agent in the Lower Mainland

Find all your market trends data for Metro Vancouver here and keep up to date with our BC real estate blog here.

The post Same money, more house: What your buck buys today vs. Metro Vancouver’s 2022 home price peak appeared first on HouseSigma.

The segment-level numbers tell a different story. Sales, prices, and supply are moving in noticeably different directions for detached homes, attached homes, and condo apartments. Treating Metro Vancouver as one real estate market in April 2026 means missing what’s actually happening.

Sales: detached up sharply, condos down

Detached sales reached 891 across Metro Vancouver in April, an 18% increase from 756 a year ago and the strongest detached sales month since October 2025. But condo apartment sales went the other way, falling 12% to 1,194 from 1,360, a drop of 166 transactions. Attached homes posted a small gain of 4%.

The shift is large enough to move the headline price statistic. Detached homes made up 32% of all April sales, up from 27% a year ago. That five-percentage-point swing toward higher-priced inventory is the entire reason the all-types median price rose year-over-year. Strip out the mix change and the picture would look softer, not stronger.

Median prices: every home type fell, but not equally

Every individual property type sold for less than it did a year ago.

• Detached median sale prices fell 7.9%, from $1,737,500 to $1,600,000, a reduction of $137,500
• Attached median sale prices fell 4.1%, from $978,000 to $938,000
• Condo median sale prices fell 6.3%, from $662,000 to $620,000

Detached prices took the biggest hit, and that could explain the sales volume rebound. Buyers who were sitting on the sidelines a year ago are finding detached homes at meaningfully lower prices, and they seem to be acting. The condo story works in the opposite direction. Prices fell, but transactions fell faster — meaning lower prices alone weren’t enough to pull condo buyers back into the market.

Supply: most home types steady, attached homes rising

Active listings at month-end show the third divergence. Detached active inventory was essentially flat year-over-year (7,794 vs 7,750). Condo apartment inventory was also flat (8,257 vs 8,385). The attached segment was different: active inventory rose 16%, from 3,534 to 4,098.

The increase is concentrated in one subtype: half-duplex and semi-detached active listings rose 41%, from 593 to 835, and new listings for that subtype rose by an almost identical 41% over the same window. Owners of half-duplexes are listing in larger numbers than they did a year ago, and the matching buyer demand has not yet shown up. May will be a useful test of whether spring activity catches up to the supply.

One factor every segment shares

Property days on market gives a full picture of how long homes are taking to sell by counting any prior days from when a home was previously listed, delisted, and quickly relisted. By this measure, listing times have lengthened across every segment compared with April 2026, even if they have been lessening month over month.

Active detached listings averaged 77 days of cumulative listing time in April, up from 62 a year ago. Active townhouses averaged 63 days, up from 49. Active condo apartments averaged 72 days, up from 57. This means that listings of every kind have been on the market longer than last spring (which in itself was considered slow), including the detached segment that has otherwise reactivated.

The “detached homes coming back” story doesn’t mean the detached market is hot. It means detached sales are more active than they was a year ago, against a build-up of slow-moving inventory, within an overall market that remains even slower than April 2025.

What this means for buyers and sellers

The clearest read from April is that “Metro Vancouver real estate” is no longer a useful single unit of analysis when the segments are pulling apart this much. A buyer shopping for a detached home and a buyer shopping for a condo are not in the same market, and using the all-types median price or the all-types sales count to read either one will mislead more than it informs.

For detached buyers, the $137,500 year-over-year drop in the median is real money, amplified by lower mortgage rates than a year ago. The opening may not last if enough buyers reach the same conclusion. Detached sellers are pricing into a market where buyers expect to negotiate, which puts more weight on pricing tightly to current comparables from the start.

“The data makes this one simple: buyers have time and selection on their side, while sellers need to show up polished or get comfortable watching their listing clock tick. However, the market vibe is still plenty confusing, and that’s why having an agent who can actually read the data makes all the difference.”

Jeremy Bator, leading HouseSigma agent in the Lower Mainland

The next two months will settle some open questions. Whether detached momentum sustains once the most attractive discounts are absorbed will tell us if the segment has found its price floor or if April was a single-month bump. Whether condo buyers re-engage through the spring, or stay cautious into the summer, will be the real test of where the entry-level market sits.

Check out the full April 2026 MarketWatch infographic for Metro Vancouver below, including more breakdowns by property type and area. Hover or click on the data points to see the full detail.

Find all your market trends data for Metro Vancouver here and keep up to date with our BC real estate blog here.

The post Infographic: April real estate figures reveal Metro Vancouver’s three-way housing market split appeared first on HouseSigma.

Beyond that headline number, HouseSigma data that these were the only 10 home sales above $7 million across Metro Vancouver between January 1 and March 31. It’s a far cry from the heyday of 2021 and 2022, but it’s notably more than Q1 2025, when only six sales crossed that same threshold.

West Vancouver and Vancouver’s West Side account for every detached entry on the below list, with the sole condo located in Vancouver’s West End.

Behind several of these sales is a recurring pattern from the upper end of the market: sellers who spent years, and millions in price reductions (as well as, often, untold renovation costs), trying to offload their properties before finally getting deals done. Four of the top ten sold for at least $5 million below their original asking prices.

Check out the 10 most expensive home sales in Metro Vancouver between January 1 and March 21, 2026.

1. 2789-2781 Point Grey Road, Vancouver: $28,000,000

The biggest residential transaction in Metro Vancouver in Q1 2026, this is a sale that came with a long road to closing. The sellers first listed this Point Grey Road waterfront property for $36 million in 2024, dropped it to $33 million, then brought it back at $28 million earlier this year before finally getting a deal done on February 18. The home spans nearly 5,800 square feet across 10 bedrooms, the result of two formerly separate lots combined into a single estate at arguably one of the most coveted addresses in the city.

Details: $28,000,000 | 10 bed, 6 bath | 5,798 sqft | Built 1968 | Sold Feb 18, 2026

2. 2612 Bellevue Avenue, West Vancouver: $16,750,000

A modern 6,719-square-foot home on one of West Vancouver’s premier waterfront streets, built in 2016 and sold on February 5 for $16.75 million. The previous sale on record was in June 2009 for $5,075,000 — meaning this property more than tripled in value over 17 years, one of the stronger appreciation stories on the list.

Details: $16,750,000 | 4 bed, 6 bath | 6,719 sqft | Built 2016 | Sold Feb 5, 2026

3. 2604 Bellevue Avenue, West Vancouver: $11,500,000

Directly next door to the #2 sale and closing just three days earlier on February 2, this makes two adjacent Bellevue Avenue properties trading hands within days for a combined $28.25 million. We’re curious about that, although without confirmed buyer information, we can’t be sure if it’s a combined deal or an unlikely coincidence. The home itself is a five-bedroom, 5,577-square-foot house built in 1926 and last sold in March 2016 for $10.6 million. A decade on one of Vancouver’s most prestigious waterfront streets added just under $900,000 in value — modest by the standards of the street’s recent history. It’s also worth noting that the above image is the only photo in the most recent listing, which is another hint that this may be a land-parcel play, but you can click through previous expired listings to see the house.

Details: $11,500,000 | 5 bed, 4 bath | 5,577 sqft | Built 1926 | Sold Feb 2, 2026

4. 1050 King Georges Way, West Vancouver: $11,350,000

At 10,844 square feet, this is the largest home on the list by a significant margin — nearly 3,000 square feet bigger than the next largest entry. Built in 2018 in the British Properties with six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, it sold January 30 for $11.35 million. That’s just $550,000 more than its September 2018 sale price of $10.8 million, less than 5% appreciation over seven years on a property of this calibre.

Details: $11,350,000 | 6 bed, 10 bath | 10,844 sqft | Built 2018 | Sold Jan 30, 2026

5. 3243 Point Grey Road, Vancouver: $9,250,000

A 112-year-old home on the same Point Grey Road as the #1 sale, this one is considerably more modest at 3,522 square feet and three bedrooms — but at $9.25 million on January 14, the land and location are clearly doing all the heavy lifting here. This is a prime redevelopment play on a highly coveted lot with direct access to the beach (and next door is already being redeveloped, as the above photo shows). No prior sale appears in our records for this property.

Details: $9,250,000 | 3 bed, 3 bath | 3,522 sqft | Built 1914 | Sold Jan 14, 2026

6. 1712 Cedar Crescent, Vancouver: $8,775,000

Cedar Crescent sits in the heart of Vancouver’s Shaughnessy neighbourhood, and this charming 1911-built home reflects the character of the street and is the oldest home on our list. It sold March 2 for $8.775 million — just $325,000 more than its March 2024 sale price of $8.45 million. That’s a slim margin for what looks likely to been a two-year renovation flip rather than a regular resale (check out the new interior photos versus the previous sold listing images), so we’re doubtful the sellers got a solid return.

Details: $8,775,000 | 4 bed, 8 bath | 7,871 sqft | Built 1911 | Sold Mar 2, 2026

=7. 1080 Wolfe Avenue, Vancouver: $8,500,000

Another Shaughnessy estate, this one from 1912, and another renovation with a low margin of return. The January 30 sale at $8.5 million finally ended a listing history that stretches back to 2020. The property first came to market at $13.88 million, meaning the sellers collected $5.38 million less than they originally hoped for. The previous recorded sale was August 2015 at $7.85 million, so — after a decade, a renovation, and years of attempting to sell — the net gain was $650,000 minus renovation costs.

Details: $8,500,000 | 4 bed, 6 bath | 5,880 sqft | Built 1912 | Sold Jan 30, 2026

=7. 1762 Acadia Road, Vancouver: $8,500,000

A 2018-built home near UBC that ties with #7 at exactly $8.5 million but closed much later in the quarter, on March 30. It’s another painful selling story. The owners first brought it to market in 2022 at $12.98 million, tried again in 2023 at $13.5 million, and came back in 2024 at $13.5 million before reducing to $11.88 million. Each time the listing expired or was terminated without a sale. The property finally sold at a fresh $8.5 million asking price just two days after being relisted, $5 million below the peak ask. The previous recorded sale was in 2012 at $5.15 million, making the long-term gain $3.35 million over 14 years.

Details: $8,500,000 | 6 bed, 8 bath | 6,326 sqft | Built 2018 | Sold Mar 30, 2026

9. 4208 Evergreen Avenue, West Vancouver: $8,200,000

A stunning, 2007-built waterfront home in West Vancouver offering 4,941 square feet across four bedrooms and five bathrooms, this home has a listing history almost as stubborn as the one above. It first came to market in 2022 at $13.5 million and sold in January this year for $8.2 million — $5.3 million below the original ask. The last sale on record was September 2004 at $4.7 million, which means the long-term appreciation picture is strong, even if the recent listing experience was painful.

Details: $8,200,000 | 4 bed, 5 bath | 4,941 sqft | Built 2007 | Sold Jan 20, 2026

10. 2101-1221 Bidwell Street, Vancouver: $7,200,000

The only condo on the list is a three-bedroom, 2,850-square-foot suite in a Coal Harbour building completed in 2013, selling for $7.2 million on March 19. It last sold in June 2016 for $5.88 million, a gain of $1.32 million over nine years. At roughly $2,526 per square foot, it’s a reminder that Vancouver’s luxury condo market has a very different price per square footage than the detached market.

Details: $7,200,000 | 3 bed, 4 bath | 2,850 sqft | Built 2013 | Sold Mar 19, 2026

Find all your market trends data for Metro Vancouver here and keep up to date with our BC real estate blog here.

The post Winners in the West: The 10 most expensive Metro Vancouver home sales of Q1 2026 appeared first on HouseSigma.

However, the seasonal bounce from February to March is one of the most predictable patterns in real estate, and March 2026 followed that script. When you pull back from the month-over-month headline, this March is still a very slow month by almost any other measure.

March’s total sales of 2,592 is down 4.8% from March 2025, and 42% below the 10-year average for the month of March, based on HouseSigma transaction data. What’s more, it’s the second-slowest March for sales in our 24-year history of Metro Vancouver transactions, which is pulled from MLS records (with only March 2019 being even lower).

New supply is outrunning new demand

The infographic below shows that the sales-to-active listings ratio (the percentage of available homes that actually sell in a given month) stood at 13.4% in March 2026. Five years ago, in March 2021, it was 80.6%. That decline is the clearest single measure of how much the balance of power has shifted in Metro Vancouver’s market. More homes are competing for fewer buyers, and March’s seasonal sales lift did nothing to interrupt that trend.

While sales picked up month-over-month in March, new listings jumped faster. Some 7,858 homes came to market in March, a 23.2% increase from February, pushing active inventory to 19,316 at month’s end. This means supply is growing faster than it’s being absorbed. Greater Vancouver Realtors noted earlier this year that active inventory was running 37% above the 10-year seasonal average, and that gap has held through last month.

Prices are flat on a year-over-year basis

The overall median sale price reached $915,000 in March, up 2.9% from February and just 0.5% higher than one year previously. After 12 months of market activity, the overall price has moved by roughly $3,000. By property type, the year-over-year price picture is even softer: detached home prices fell 7.6% to $1,625,000, condos dropped 5.2% to $640,000, and attached homes came in at $960,000, down 5.4%.

Property days on market (which tracks how long a home has truly been trying to sell, including time from previous listings) remained elevated at 78 days in March. Homes that don’t sell in the first few weeks are clearly finding it hard to attract buyers. This is evidenced by the fact that terminated and expired listings rose year-over-year for both detached homes (+2.8%) and attached (+7.7%), adding to the picture of sellers struggling to find traction.

What this spring market actually means

Until there is a meaningful increase in sales activity — not just the seasonal bumps that come with warmer weather — prices are likely to remain subdued.

Sellers are listing their homes at price levels and volumes that reflect optimism about spring. Buyers, facing economic uncertainty and no particular urgency, are moving at their own pace. The result is more inventory, modest transaction volumes, and sale prices that have softened and show little sign of increasing. For buyers, that’s a quiet market worth that could be worth taking advantage of, while negotiating power is in their hands. For sellers, it’s a reminder that the calendar turning to spring doesn’t automatically bring a frenzy of buying activity along with it.

Jeremy Bator, a leading HouseSigma agent in the Lower Mainland, said, “That 22% jump looks like a party, but it’s really just the market doing its usual spring fling. When you zoom out, we’re still in a slower, slightly buyer-leaning market. Sellers need to be sharp on price, realistic with expectations, and make sure their home shows like a 10, because marginal just gets lost in the mix.”

Check out the full March 2026 interactive MarketWatch infographic for Metro Vancouver below, including more breakdowns by property type and area. Hover or click on the data points to see the full detail.

Find all your market trends data for Metro Vancouver here and keep up to date with our BC real estate blog here.

The post Infographic: What Metro Vancouver’s 22% spring real estate sales bounce really means appeared first on HouseSigma.

HouseSigma’s Market Temperature graphs measure something different: the absorption rate, which is the share of active listings that sell in a given month. It captures the live balance between supply and demand. You can find these Market Temperature graphs by scrolling down a little on any of our Market Trends pages, such as this Metro Vancouver page, this GTA page, and this Greater Calgary page. (You can also choose any other HouseSigma-covered geographic area, and filter by factors such as municipality, neighbourhood, and home type.)

When we examined five years of transaction data across Metro Vancouver, the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Calgary, a clear pattern emerged. The absorption rate doesn’t just describe current conditions — it often moves ahead of what sellers actually accept at the negotiating table, otherwise known as the sale-to-list-price ratio.

This means that the absorption rate can give us a clue about where prices are heading, because if we can predict that sellers will be forced into giving deeper discounts (or if they have the power to not accept discounts, or even force buyers to offer over list price) then we can predict what the overall typical sale prices will be.

A tale of three major markets

The pandemic buying frenzy of 2021 and early 2022 pushed absorption rates to extraordinary levels in all three urban areas, though the experience differed considerably between them.

In the GTA, demand was so intense during that period that monthly sales far outpaced the number of “active listings” — the count of available homes for sale at the end of the month. This can happen when homes that are being listed throughout the month are being snapped up, in addition to existing inventory, and never make it to the month-end inventory count.

Check out this graph below, with the blue line and left-side Y axis showing the absorption rate across the GTA as a whole over the past five years.

Metro Vancouver saw similarly elevated activity in 2021 and 2022, per the graph below, before also seeing a rapid decline that has led to today’s buyer’s market. Like in the GTA, there was a brief recovering mini-peak in 2023 before the slow period of mostly decline up to today.

If you examine the green line on those two graphs, with a measure on the right-side Y-axis, you can see the sale-to-list-price ratio — the median percentage of the asking price that sellers were getting in the actual sale. It’s clear that in both cities during that 2021-22 period, sellers weren’t just receiving offers at asking price (the 100% dotted red line); homes were typically closing at a price above asking, especially in the GTA for a prolonged period. However, this is clearly not the case today.

Calgary told a subtler version of the same story. The absorption rate climbed sharply, but even at peak heat, most transactions completed at or just above the asking price rather than dramatically over it.

Calgary’s market competitiveness has always expressed itself through speed and volume rather than the kind of overbidding that became common in Toronto and Vancouver. Record international and interprovincial migration drove housing demand in Calgary, with employment gains and relative affordability continuing to attract people to the province even amid high interest rates.

Does the absorption rate actually predict what comes next for prices?

To answer this accurately, we ran a statistical analysis testing whether the absorption rate (or “Market Temperature”) in a given month is more closely correlated with sale-to-list-price ratios in that same month, or in the months that follow. The answer depends on the market.

In the GTA and Greater Calgary, the absorption rate is genuinely predictive of rising or falling sale-to-list-price ratios. The correlation between this month’s absorption rate and next month’s median sale-to-list ratio is stronger than the concurrent relationship — meaning the absorption rate tends to move about a month ahead of negotiating outcomes in those cities.

Greater Vancouver Realtors’ historical analysis confirms the broader relationship between absorption rate and pricing, finding that downward pressure on home prices occurs when the absorption rate dips below 12% for a sustained period, while upward pressure tends to emerge when it surpasses 20%. In HouseSigma’s Metro Vancouver graph above, however, the correlations are nearly identical at every month, as the two metrics move together rather than one leading the other. Vancouver’s market appears to adjust faster — suggesting that sellers tend to change prices more quickly in response to changing absorption conditions, compressing the gap.

Jeremy Bator, a leading HouseSigma agent in the Lower Mainland of BC, observed, ““Metro Vancouver sellers don’t sit around waiting for the market to catch up — they adjust on the fly. With the region’s strong international influence, there’s an added layer of sophistication in how sellers read and react to market signals. It’s kind of like driving around here — hesitate for a second and someone’s already merged into your lane.”

Calgary’s second boom cycle

One of the most interesting findings from the five-year dataset is that Calgary ran a second complete boom cycle that Vancouver and the GTA did not. After cooling in late 2022, Calgary’s absorption rate surged again through 2023 and into early 2024, fuelled by continued interprovincial migration from British Columbia and Ontario. CMHC noted that roughly 70% of net interprovincial migration into Alberta was coming from B.C. and Ontario, as buyers priced out of those markets sought relative affordability in Calgary. The absorption rate and the median sale-to-list-price ratio both peaked again in spring 2024, with sellers once more commanding full asking price — and in each case the absorption rate’s climb preceded the improvement in sale-to-list outcomes by roughly a month, consistent with the statistical analysis.

That pattern then reversed. Calgary’s absorption rate has been falling steadily since mid-2024, and the sale-to-list-price ratio has tracked it downward. Sellers who were receiving full asking price 18 months ago are now accepting modest discounts.

Raj Sandhu, a leading HouseSigma agent in Calgary, said, “Calgary’s market has been one of the most resilient in the country over the past few years. However, as supply has caught up and interest rates remain a factor, we’re now seeing a clear cooling trend. The absorption rate has been a reliable leading signal. Once it started declining, we saw seller’s price expectations adjust shortly after.”

Where things stand now

All three markets are currently cooling, and in each the sale-to-list ratio is following the absorption rate down. Metro Vancouver’s absorption rate hit a five-year low in January 2026 and is still very muted. The GTA has been soft throughout 2025, with sellers consistently accepting below asking. Calgary, starting from a higher base, has cooled more recently but is now tracking the same direction.

The sales-to-active listings ratio in Metro Vancouver remains below the level that typically signals upward price pressure, indicating that downward pressure on pricing may persist if conditions do not tighten. The same observation holds in the GTA and Calgary.

Sammy Kohn, a leading HouseSigma agent in the GTA, warned that it is important to recognize statistics only paint part of the picture. He said, “‘I definitely look at stats, but lean more on client realities — it’s always case by case. That said, Toronto’s demand edging up right now means balanced absorption, which signal steady or rising prices ahead — and if it keeps buyers and sellers even, that’s a win for everyone.”

That said, stats are a useful part of the picture, as long as they’re taken in context. And for anyone trying to decide when to list or when to buy, the Market Temperature graph offers something the sale-price charts don’t: an early read on where negotiating conditions may be heading. In most markets, that signal tends to arrive before the shift shows up in what homes actually sell for, so it’s worth keeping an eye on it.

Follow your local Market Temperature and other data on our Market Trends pages, such as this Metro Vancouver page, this GTA page, and this Greater Calgary page.

The post Where is the market heading? Our interactive Market Temperature charts can help predict home prices appeared first on HouseSigma.

The year-over-year median sale price decline for February 2026 across the region was 1.2%. But look at each segment separately and the picture changes considerably.

Detached homes were down 9.6% year-over-year in February, with the median sitting at $1,572,000 compared with $1,739,450 a year earlier. That’s $167,000 off the price of the same type of home, in the same market, twelve months apart. Condos dropped 7.5%, bringing the February median to $620,000 versus $670,000 in February 2025. Attached homes fell 5.9%, to $938,800 from $997,250.

So why, if all home types saw YOY drops of around 6-10%, is the overall median YOY price decline only 1.2%? Because that figure is a blended median across all property types, and it’s being cushioned by a shift in the type of homes sold. In February 2025, condos made up 49% of all sales in the region, but in February 2026, that share had fallen to 46%. Given that condos are the lowest-priced segment, having fewer of them in the mix pulls the overall median upward, even as prices in every segment are falling.

Has the price slide bottomed out, or merely paused?

All three segments declined year-over-year in most months throughout 2025, with the steepest drops in winter. Detached prices hit a peak YOY decline of 10.6% in January. Condos were down 9.2% YOY the same month. Attached homes reached -9.1% in December. In fact, February’s prices saw an uptick compared with the prior winter months, suggesting that the slide might have reached its bottom. The month-over-month overall median price rose 2.5% in February, and both attached homes and condos were up in price versus January (see infographic graph below).

The sale-to-list-price pattern adds another layer. In March 2025, the typical Metro Vancouver home was selling at about 98% of its asking price. By December, that had slipped to roughly 97%.

Arguably, there are signs the rate of decline is easing. Since December, sale-to-list-price ratios have ticked up modestly in January and February, with the median discount in February at 2.7%. But whether that’s the beginning of stabilisation or a seasonal bounce based on New Year activity remains to be seen.

Are we on track for a repeat of 2025’s spring market?

Last year’s pricing pattern provides a useful reference point. When sales volume jumped from January to February 2025, detached and attached prices also fell MOM, just like this Febrruary. Then March 2025 brought a genuine spring bounce — detached recovered +1.1%, attached +1.8% — before both resumed declining in April and May. The seasonal uplift in spring 2025 produced exactly one month of price recovery before the downtrend reasserted itself.

If history repeats itself this year, median prices for March 2026 may rise during a flurry of spring activity before correcting again.

Jeremy Bator, a leading HouseSigma agent in the Lower Mainland, said, “From what I’m seeing on the ground, buyers are still cautious and negotiating, particularly in the detached segment. There are some signs the rate of decline is easing, but it still feels more like a seasonal spring bump than a true market turnaround at this point. As Tom Petty would say, ‘the waiting is the hardest part.'”

Check out the interactive infographic below for a look at Metro Vancouver’s latest pricing data, also broken down by city and home type.

Find all your market trends data for Metro Vancouver here and keep up to date with our BC real estate blog here.

The post Infographic: Will Metro Vancouver’s spring home market bring a recovery, or a repeat of last year? appeared first on HouseSigma.

There have always been lots of perks to selling your home through HouseSigma, and that’s even truer now that we have a fantastic new deal on our listing fees.

Here are just five of the biggest reasons you should choose HouseSigma when selling your home.

1. Professional, expert, local agents you can trust

When you choose HouseSigma, you’re connected with professional local agents who know your market inside and out.

We maintain the highest standards through a rigorous screening and selection process. With ongoing professional development and training, we ensure that our agents stay at the forefront of industry knowledge.

Steven Yanni, HouseSigma’s managing broker for Ontario, said, “Our agents are the backbone of the experience. We’re selective about who joins the team, and we provide them with advanced tools. When our clients work with a HouseSigma agent, they’re getting someone who knows the local market and is held to a higher standard.”

2. Millions of users can easily see your “Featured Listing”

Most home listings you’ll see on HouseSigma are from the many other real estate brokerages out there, and there’s a LOT of noise. But when you sell with HouseSigma, your home listing will receive the coveted Featured Listing status on our website.

That means your listing will be promoted on the home page of HouseSigma’s mobile app and desktop site, surfacing it to HouseSigma’s two million-plus active users. It will get far more views on our website than other comparable non-featured listings! In the end, you are much more likely to find a buyer from the HouseSigma website than home sellers using other brokerages.

Steven Yanni added, “That’s a massive audience you just don’t get anywhere else.”

3. Listing fee of just 1.5% – or even lower if you bundle

Instead of the standard 3% commission for listing your home that most real estate agents charge, HouseSigma’s fee is just half that, at 1.5% commission. You’ll be saving many thousands of dollars compared with most listing fees!

For example, on a $800,000 home, if you use an agent who charges 3%, you’ll pay $24,000 in commission. With HouseSigma’s 1.5% listing fee, on the same home you’ll pay just $12,000.

What’s more, HouseSigma is now offering a bundle deal that means you pay only 1% listing fee* when selling your home, if your home is priced above $699,995 and you also buy your next home through one of our agents.

In this scenario, selling that $800,000 home in the example above will now cost you only $8,000 in commission. That’s a third of what the regular 3% commission will set you back.

4. High-quality marketing and promotion

We’ve all heard horror stories of agents who seem enthusiastic when they are first retained, and then fail to put any work into marketing or showing the home they have been hired to sell. Don’t worry. When you list your home with HouseSigma, the following services are all included as part of the package:

• Professional photography
• Marketing brochures
• Floor plans
• For-sale signage
• Open houses hosted by your agent
• Virtual tours

Your HouseSigma agent can also advise you on any additional services that are on offer.

5. Canada’s top-rated real estate app, trusted by thousands

Don’t take our word for it! HouseSigma is Canada’s top-rated real estate app in both the App Store and the Google Play Store, being rated higher on both platforms than any other Canadian listing app. HouseSigma also has thousands of five-star reviews on TrustPilot.

Check out what one client, Jackie, had to say in her five-star Trust Pilot review after both buying and selling homes with HouseSigma:

“Our real estate agent Sam Ehsan made our buying/selling experience much less stressful than we expected. He negotiated great prices for both houses and handled stuff behind the scenes so that we didn’t have to deal with it. Sam being with HouseSigma was a benefit that we feel contributed to a quick sale of our house, because Sam took time and care to ensure our house was in the best position to sell. He took care of staging the house and having it cleaned prior to pictures. Overall our experience with Sam and HouseSigma was 5 stars.”

Jackie, HouseSigma client, via TrustPilot

We’re sure you’ll agree these are pretty compelling reasons to entrust your home sale with HouseSigma. So, next time you’re considering a home sale, you need look no further.

Ready for a free, no-obligation chat about your home sale? Fill in the form on this page and we’ll be in touch.

*1% listing fee only applicable when your home is listed over $699,995. The listing agreement signing and home purchase closing dates must be within six months of each other. If you list and sell before buying, a 1.5% listing fee will apply. The 0.5% bundle saving is issued as a rebate after the closing of your subsequent home purchase with a HouseSigma agent. Speak to your HouseSigma agent for more details.

The post Five great reasons why you should sell your home with HouseSigma appeared first on HouseSigma.

There is an important caveat: February sales were still 8.5% below the same month in 2025, so this is not a return to former highs. What the data suggests instead is a market that has been slowly finding the price levels at which buyers and sellers can agree. It’s also important to note that January sales are historically low in general due to the holiday wind-down, while February tends to see a significant percentage increase on those sales as the market restarts.

The overall median sale price in February edged up to $889,500, a 2.5% month-over-month gain, though still 1.2% lower than a year ago. That combination — sales rising, prices ticking up modestly, but year-over-year still negative — is consistent with a market stabilizing rather than recovering outright.

Inventory starting to flow again

There are also early signs that stuck inventory is starting to loosen. Active Metro Vancouver listings in February had been on the market (across all listing periods) for an average of 86 days — still a long time, but a notable improvement from the 100 property days on market recorded in January. That declining trend suggests the backlog of relisted and stale inventory is beginning to clear, as some longer-sitting sellers either found buyers in the February sales uptick, or withdrew from the market.

Despite the sales surge and a drop in new listings compared with January, 17,800 active listings remain across Metro Vancouver, keeping overall conditions buyer-friendly. High condo listing terminations — 1,343 in February — signal that a significant portion of condo sellers have yet to bridge the gap to where buyers are willing to transact.

Jeremy Bator, a leading HouseSigma agent in the Lower Mainland, commented, “A 46% jump doesn’t necessarily signal a full spring frenzy, but it does feel like the market is stretching and waking up. I’ve been involved in several multiple-offer situations recently, and there’s a noticeable shift in energy. Open house traffic is stronger, buyers are out actively looking, and confidence seems to be building. You can sense that some are beginning to ask: is the bottom done?”

Check out our newly interactive February 2026 Metro Vancouver MarketWatch infographic, below, to see the full breakdown by property type and where the hottest communities are for listing activity. Just hover your mouse over the charts to see the precise data.

Find all your market trends data for Metro Vancouver here and keep up to date with our BC real estate blog here.

The post Infographic: Does the 46% jump in Metro Vancouver home sales signal an early spring rebound? appeared first on HouseSigma.

New data from HouseSigma has found that there were just 1,470 homes sold in the region last month, which is down nearly 30% both month over month and on an annual basis. At the same time, optimistic home sellers took to listing their homes in the New Year rush, with new listings rocketing up more than 1.5 times that of the previous month.

These market conditions converged to push the average amount of time it takes to sell a Metro Vancouver home to the highest we’ve recorded. Property days on market (which includes if a home was delisted and quickly relisted) averaged 100 days in January, meaning that the average home listing in the region is taking that long to sell.

Prices didn’t adjust too much, however, with the median home sale price – all residential property types combined – slipping only 0.8% to $867,900.

“January was a reality check for the market. Buyers pulled back, sellers surged forward, and listings started to pile up, pushing selling times to record highs. But with prices barely flinching, this isn’t panic selling, it’s a standoff. Spring will tell us whether buyers step up or sellers start to budge. This is going to get interesting! I see a lot more people shopping, so maybe a breakthrough is coming.”

Jeremy Bator, a leading HouseSigma agent in the Lower Mainland

Check out the infographic below for more details on the January 2026 Metro Vancouver real estate market.

Find all your market trends data for Metro Vancouver here and keep up to date with our BC real estate blog here.

The post Infographic: The average Metro Vancouver home listing now takes 100 days to sell appeared first on HouseSigma.