In the 12 months ending July 31, there were 1,389 sales of all property types, a 13 per cent increase over the same period in 2013. The highest number of annual sales was 2,256 in 2007. The lowest was 879 in 1998. The 20-year average is 1,506. This is the seventh consecutive year of below-average numbers of sales.
The 12-month average sale price of a Comox Valley home is $353,351, up five per cent from 2013. The average lot price is $146,782, up three per cent. If you purchased an ‘average’ home in 2004, you paid $211,308. If you bought an average lot in the same year, you paid $75,246.
Year-to-date, 75 houses per month have sold; 72 per cent of all residential sales occurred in Comox (28%), Courtenay (36%) and Cumberland (8%).
Houses comprise 60 per cent of the 1,024 residential properties offered for sale in the Comox Valley (condos 31%, mobiles 3%, duplexes 6%). The active inventory of all properties is 1,518, identical to July 31, 2013.
If you bought an average home in Cumberland in 2004 you paid $138,695. Today’s price is $296,374 (up 4% from 2013.) The largest local price differential is between the old City of Courtenay ($277,915) and Crown Isle ($518,220).
So far in 2014, 25 houses have sold for less than $200,000 — fewer than the previous five years. There were 10 sales over $1 million in 2008 — more than the next five years. (There have been four this year). The 12-month median price (half sales above, half sales below) is $335,000.
The year-to-date residential sales pattern shows that 37 per cent of sales occur between $250,000 and $350,000.