Homes sales and prices dropping in Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows

With rising interest rates cooling an overheated housing market, realtors in Maple Ridge say they are seeing a return to more normal conditions.

November is typically a quiet month of market activity, but home sales and listing totals have lagged below the region’s long-term averages, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). The board reports home sales in the region totalled 1,614 in November 2022, which is less than half of the 3,428 sales recorded in November 2021. Last month’s sales were also 36.9 per cent below the 10-year November sales average.

Locally, it’s the same story in Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows. In the months of September, October and November of 2021 there were 349 house sales, but the same three months in 2022 saw 200 sales – a drop of 42.7 per cent. Townhouses also dropped from 144 sales to 95 in the same period, year over year, for a 34 per cent drop. And apartment sales dropped from 172 in 2021, to 74 in 2022. That’s a drop of 57 per cent.

Realtor Leah Falkner of RE/MAX Lifestyles Realty said buyers will appreciate a less frenetic pace than the buying frenzy of 2021.

“There are listings, and it’s a great market for buyers,” said Faulkner. “They have time to look at a variety of homes and make thoughtful decisions.”

“They aren’t having to make big decisions in a weekend.”

The market had been so hot that buyers were forced to make offers with no subjects. Now, they can attach conditions to their purchases – such as subject to the sale of their own home, she said.

“It’s a typical market, where a house can be on the market for 30 to 60 days, and there is nothing wrong with it.”

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Over the past six months, local prices are down almost 20 per cent for a house. Across the Lower Mainland they have dropped 14 per cent to a benchmarch of $1.65 million. In Maple Ridge they are down 18 per cent to $1.18 million and in Pitt Meadows down 20 per cent to $1.16 million.

Townhouses are down 15 per cent to $730,000 in Maple Ridge, and down nine per cent to $840,000 in Pitt Meadows. Across the Lower Mainland, the benchmark has dropped 11 per cent to $915,000.

Apartment prices have dropped 10 per cent in both cities, to $518,000 in Maple Ridge and $583,000 in Pitt Meadows. Across the region, the benchmark price is $671,000, down eight per cent.

“Heading into 2023, the market continues the trend of shifting toward historical averages and typical seasonal norms,” said Andrew Lis, REBGV’s director, economics and data analytics. “Whether these trends continue will depend on looming economic factors and forthcoming housing policy measures on the horizon, which hold the potential to reignite uncertainty in our market.”

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