Si ONE question people often ask is whaz is the best time of year to list a house? Is it important to list in the carly spring or carly fall because more homes sell dur- ing those seasons? Or does it not really matter as houses sell pretty well all through the year? Also, do selling patterns vary for different arcas and different types of housing? Th an attempt to get an answer to these questions I pulled tagether some data cn iscings and sales for the Nor kets. I fooked at the average number of honies that were listed and sold cach month for the last three years (ic. September 1996 to August 1999). The results are’shown in the accompanying tables. The first table shows the distribution of listings by month for detached homes and apartments in West Vancouver and North Vancouver as well as for Shore housing mar- Peveentage distizution of home LISTINGS by maath Apr = Mays dune July Aug Sep Oct —Nov Dec 10.0% 9.4% 10.0% - 8.9% 8.0% dan 9.5% 9.5%": West Van Det West Ven'Apiz: North Van Bet 8.9% Worth Van Att? 2-10.9%: North Van Apts 9.0% Feb 9.8% 8.2%: 8.9% 8.4% "10.8% ¢- 8.5% attached homes in North Van. Yeu can sec that for West Van detached homes, the biggest month for listings was April where 10.3% of the year’s listings took place. Although April was the biggest month, the months from January to July and the month of September were all similar in that they each rep- resented around 9 or 10% of the year’s listings. The only months that were clearly di ferent were August, October and November each with 6- 7% of the year’s listings, and December with only 3.7%. The results for West Van apartments and for the North Mar 9.4% “10198 10.9% 10.3% 10.7% 11.0% 96% *- 8.6% 9.3% 9.1% 8.0% 10.5% 8.9% Percentage distribution of home Sits by menth Apr May June July Aug Sop Get dar West VanDet 3.9% West Vai Apte#:5.2% Worth Van Det. 5.3% Bort Vas AWE 6.5% North Van Apts 6.5% 9.9% 8.2% 10.4% 23 8.6%: 89% 9.0% 8.8%, 8.1% ‘9.9% ET S%. Van housing categories were similar with either March or April being the biggest month for listings and December the smallest. While it is useful to know in which months people list their homes for sale, it is even more important to know when the houses sell. This is shown in the sec- ond table. Looking agaén at West Vancouver detached homes, you can see that the biggest months for sales are March, April and june, ail around the 10% :ark. They are closely followed by July, September, October and November with between 8.8 and 9.2% of the year’s sales in each of those months. The remaining months are fairly close behind with only January having considerably fewer sales at 3.9%. The results for West Vancouver apartments are similar with April having the most sales at 10.4% of the car's voral, closcly followed y March. January again has the smallest percentage of 6.9% 7.2% 7.1% 6.5% 6.5% 8.8% 9.4% :. 8.8% 9.0% 9.4% 8.5% 6.7% 79% 9.6% 7.6% 8.4%: 76% LTA 6.4% 9.0% 1.7% 8.3% TT: 8.4% 9.9% 5% : 9.7% 9.0% AT A GLANCE... sales, The patterns for North Vancouver sales are not too much difterent although the sales scem to be more evenly distributed over the months. Probably the reason for this, at least in the case of apart- ments and artached homes, is that more of these properties are held by investers who rent them out. Investors would be less concerned with sellin: home to coincide with the school year cr with avoiding moving in the winter, since of course they are not moving. In my view what is most striking about the figures in this rable is how flat the dis- tributions are. While there are months with higher sales, the sales are really distributed fairly evenly over the year for all the categories of housing. With the exception of the month of January for West Van detached homes, every month has at least 5% of tite year’s sales. These figures tend to dispel the notion that houses sell mainly in the 3.7% 4.0% 3.2% 5.5% 5.0% 6.9% 8.2% 7.9% 8.5% 8.3% 6.4% 5.9% 7.0% 9.2% 8.8% TAY: 7.8% $.7%: 7.5% 720 Rutland Rd. LOT SIZE: 108’ x 148’ (eff} INTERIOR SIZE: 2339 SQ. FT. weeecascccrcccccccscossece seoneccacsccere NUMBER OF BEDROOMS: 3 NUMBER OF FLOORS: 2 Friday, September 17, 7999 — North Shore News -63 spring and fall and thar nor much happens in the summer months or in Dee homes do sell quite weil throughout the year. The message that this pro- vides to the would-be home seller is that it doesn’t seem to meter all that much when a hosne is put on the market. Other variabies such as the @®@vHG@eeeeeeeeocoeseeoaneesaeeaeeeeooes price, the condition of the home, the nusaber of other houses on the marker and the marketing of the home are probably much more impor- tant determinants of whether the house will sell or not. Trent Appelbe is an econo- mist and a real estate agent with RE/MAX Crest Reality. He can be reached at 988-4797 or iv e-mail via his Web site at . Giant Beanstalk DULCIE and Rob Boxter used a mixture of seaweed : and mushroom compost to grow this bean plant. . Big, flat backyard for the pond : plus a poo! and all perfectly private. Inside is an updated post &: beam boasting a gourmet country kitchen, hardwood floors,-3 -. remodelled bathrooms, big recroom, extra large deck and mucty more. This is the perfect family home. Location, lot and view. ° ounces ASKING PRICE: $599,000 OPEN HOUSE: Sunday2-4pm LISTING AGENT: Robert Prem & Lance Phillips 926-6718 SPECIAL FEATURES: City view, total! privacy, remodelled home. 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