EARLY SPRING SURGE IN SALES & NEW LISTINGS IN FRASER VALLEY (Surrey, BC) – The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board processed 1,279 sales on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in February, an increase of six per cent compared with 1,204 sold during February 2010, and 53 per cent more than the 834 listings that sold last month. Sukh Sidhu, Board president, confirms the market is more active earlier than expected. “Fraser Valley REALTORS® are busy. We sold 659 detached homes last month compared to 398 in January. We also saw the greatest amount of new inventory come on stream since last summer. “We think one of the drivers is the change in mortgage rules that is coming up on March 18. Some clients have asked that their sale complete before that date. Plus, our REALTORS® are telling us that almost fifty per cent of their buyers paid less than 25 per cent as a down payment for their home purchases during the first half of February. A 35-year amortization could be more attractive to those buyers.” In February, the benchmark price for Fraser Valley detached homes was $514,161, an increase of 1.2 per cent from the February 2010 price of $508,136. The benchmark price of Fraser Valley townhouses in February was $316,578, a 2.5 per cent decrease compared to $324,708 in February 2010. The benchmark price of apartments remained on par year-over-year going from $245,879 in February 2010 to $245,519 in February 2011. The MLS® received 3,038 new listings in February, an increase of 15.4 per cent compared to the volume received in January and 6.2 per cent more than the 2,879 new listings received during February last year. Last month finished with 8,680 active listings, an increase of 2.3 per cent compared to the 8,485 active listings available during …

INCREASE IN LISTINGS ADVANTAGEOUS FOR FRASER VALLEY BUYERS (Surrey, BC) – The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board reports an increase in listing activity and steady sales for the first month of 2011. Deanna Horn, president of the Board says, “In addition to an influx of new inventory in January, our REALTORS® had more inquiries and increased traffic at open houses boding well for a solid spring market in the Fraser Valley.” There were 834 sales processed on the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in January, a decrease of 15 per cent compared to the 981 sales processed in January 2010 and a 7 per cent decrease compared to the 895 sales in December. Although the Board received 11 per cent fewer new listings in January than it did during the same month last year, it saw the typical post-holiday surge in new properties coming on stream. The Board received 2,632 new listings last month, an increase of 138 per cent compared to the 1,104 listings received in December taking the number of active listings to 7,724 at the end of January, 4 per cent more than were available during January 2010. Horn adds, “The market typically picks up at this time of year as also evidenced by the decrease in the average number of days to sell for single family homes and townhomes in January. “In terms of prices, overall they’re holding steady, however we are seeing variability depending on the community and property type.” The benchmark price for Fraser Valley detached homes in January was $505,618, down 0.1 per cent compared to December and 0.9 per cent higher compared to $500,931 in January 2010. The benchmark price of Fraser Valley townhouses in January was $317,414, a 1.4 per cent decrease compared to December and a 0.1 per cent decrease …