Abbotsford homes are no longer flying off the shelf as fast as they used to, and as a result, prices continued to drop throughout much of the city in February.
According to the most recent report from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB), this is in line with the larger trend happening in the Fraser Valley, making the real estate market more appealing for buyers.
FVREB CEO Baldev Gill said that this is an especially good time for those looking to purchase a single-family detached home.
"Should this pattern persist, we could see a further shift toward a buyer’s market, particularly given the ongoing economic uncertainties and impending tariffs," Gill said. "With ample selection, buyers have flexibility and time on their side to explore their options before making a decision."
February brought many changes to the Abbotsford market, one of which was a significant change in the number of home sales.
Compared to January of this year, February had a slight bump in detached home sales, rising from 43 to 48. However, this is a 28 per cent drop from February 2024.
Apartment sales in Abbotsford had nearly identical numbers, while townhouses doubled the number of sales from January to February.
It was the exact opposite situation for the number of new listings across the board, with last month resulting in 160 detached home listings, which was a 10 per cent decrease from January but a 14 per cent increase from last year.
Townhouse new listings experienced a six per cent drop from the previous month and a 22 per cent increase from 2024, with apartment listings having an even bigger recent drop of more than 17 per cent.
While the number of new listings may have slightly declined recently, there are still plenty of listings left over from prior months, resulting in 384 active listings for detached homes, which is significantly more than last month and more than a 50 per cent increase from February 2024.
Apartment active listings followed a similar pattern, while townhouse active listings had by far the biggest year-over-year increase of nearly 90 per cent.
As the number of active listings continues to go up, the prices of these homes are doing the opposite, with Abbotsford detached homes and apartments selling for a benchmark price of $1.2 million and $440,100, respectively, which are both slight price drops from both January of this year as well as February 2024.
Townhouses were the standout due to them becoming more valuable in February, experiencing a nearly one per cent benchmark price increase from last month as well as last year.
The entire Fraser Valley as a whole is off to a much slower start to 2025 in terms of home sales than in the previous year, with total property sales so far for this year being a 20 per cent decline from the first two months of 2024.
And with new listings for the year having a 27 per cent increase, the number of homes available in the market is only expected to grow in the coming months.
