For Immediate Release: October 2, 2014

 Strong summer for Fraser Valley real estate carries through to September

 SURREY, BC – The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board processed 1,419 sales on its Multiple Listing Service (MLS®) in September, an increase of 25 per cent compared to the 1,131 sales during the same month last year, and an increase of 9 per cent compared to sales in August.

Ray Werger, the Board’s president, says, “Similar to this past summer, this is the busiest September we’ve hadsince 2009 with sales of all property types combined out performing the 10‐year average by 13 per cent.

“Residentially, the single family detached home remains the preferred property type. From North Delta to Mission,sales increased in every Fraser Valley community compared to last year with the price range of $400,000 to $699,999 garnering almost sixty per cent of our total detached market.”

New listing activity was also steady in September with the Board’s MLS® receiving 2,758 new listings, an increase of16 per cent compared to last year, taking the total number of active listings by month end to 9,156, a decrease of 7 per cent compared to September 2013.

Werger adds, “An important factor underlying the housing market is consumer confidence and in our region that confidence has been bolstered by the stability of home prices. Since March, the benchmark price of our three main residential property types combined has remained flat, increasing by only 0.6 per cent.

“Long ‐term, the value of single family detached homes has increased at a faster pace than it has for attached properties, particularly in areas such as Surrey, White Rock, Langley and Abbotsford where we’ve seen many new townhome and condo developments. The supply of new inventory has affected the price of resale product.”

The MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI) benchmark price of a detached home in September was $569,800; anincrease of 3.1 per cent compared to September 2013, when it was $552,900. In the last six months, thebenchmark price of a detached home has increased by 1.1 per cent.

In September, the MLS® HPI benchmark price of Fraser Valley townhouses was $299,600; an increase of 1.1 per cent compared to $296,200 in September of last year, and in the last six months has increased by 0.8 per cent. The benchmark price of apartments decreased yearover‐year by 4.7 per cent, going from $203,100 in September 2013 to $193,600 last month, and has decreased by 0.9 per cent in the last six months.