Residential Trends
White Rock South Surrey Real Estate – Outlook 2007
Recent research showed homeowners in South Surrey and White Rock were 2006's biggest property winners with entire region seeing the largest house price hikes across the Fraser Valley. According to the Fraser Valley Real-estate Board the price of an average Single Family Residence in White Rock and District rose a staggering 26% over the previous year. The average price for a single-family residence in November was now $739,353 up from the previous $585,618 just a year ago.
In absolute terms, South Surrey and White Rock house prices have increased two fold the past decade, but compared with the rise in prices generally, "real" house prices have roughly doubled - up by 112%. The single biggest factor driving up house prices in the past decade has been the expectation of buyers that prices will keep on rising. As well as speculative expectations, the main factors pinpointed by the industry are the rise in people's incomes, the rapid growth of the population and the cheap cost of borrowing due to low interest rates.
Of these, the expectation that prices will keep on rising by about 10-15% every year has accounted for between one-third and half of the excessive rise in prices seen in the past 10 years. However, 2007 is still shaping up to be a good year, but buyers should welcome the news that price increases are moderating. We expect to see 5-7% increase in house prices in the region , but that’s a far cry from last year's 26% increase.
The watchword for sellers considering entering the market in 2007 is price your property realistically, or it will sit unsold. This is especially evident as the market slows and the amount of houses listed at any one time is expected to rise. The best priced homes will sell first and poorly priced homes may not sell at all.