Vancouver Teranet HPI and Inventory update

Long-time readers of this blog will be familiar with the model that mohican devised that relates house price index (HPI) changes to the ratio of for-sale inventory to monthly sales (months of inventory or MOI). Below is an update to this data series with some brief analysis.

The first graph plots the time series of the 6 month change in the Teranet Vancouver HPI and REBGV MOI. The correlation is clear from direct observation.

The second graph is a scatterplot of HPI change versus months of inventory, with a time shift to optimise for highest correlation.

And finally the same scatterplot but with year-on-year HPI change with a 6 month lag.

The only likely way to get higher MOI is to have higher inventory, and the advent of higher inventory takes many quarters to materialise (inventory is currently very low). It is for this reason that I do not foresee any significant house price relief in Vancouver in the next year to 18 months.

REBGV Sales Update Through March 2017

REBGV released their stats package through March 2017. Here are the numbers:

Sales have recovered and are now "average", but nowhere near the levels seen in 2016. Inventory is low and new listings have been low, albeit new listings have recovered in recent weeks. The result is a "lowish" MOI (months of inventory), which portends a decent spring in terms of price growth (not crazy but not weak either). A long stretch of robust new listings is required to allow low inventory to recover.

Why are new listings so low? There are two reasons I think are both acting to suppress listings. First (pointed out to me by Aaron Vaillancourt) many listings manifest due to homeowners moving properties; if there are few listings then there is nothing for homeowners to buy and they will therefore not list. This is somewhat analogous to a "liquidity crisis", and the solution is to lubricate the market with more supply (which is coming later this year). 

Second with higher inventory levels the number of properties that do not clear in a given sales season are higher. Some of these properties will be listed the next season. In 2015 and 2016 the high level of sales has meant most of this inventory has cleared, pushing resultant re-listings are down.

Attached housing (townhouse and apartments) continues to be stronger than single detached housing in terms of price strength as measured by the change in the MLS-HPI (see link at beginning of this post). This closing of the gap between housing types is to be expected in the wake of detached housing prices having had accelerated in previous years.

I continue to see no evidence to suggest a significant slowdown will occur in 2017. That is not to say a significant slowdown won't occur, but I don't see any evidence supporting it.

REBGV Sales Update Through February 2017

REBGV released their stats package through February 2017. Here are the numbers:





Sales have recovered and are now "average". Inventory is low. The result is a "lowish" MOI, which portends a decent spring in terms of price growth (not crazy but not weak either). Inventory growth is very low. Whatever is holding up owners from listing is exerting upwards pressure on the market. Attached housing (townhouse and apartments) is stronger than single detached housing in terms of price strength as measured by the change in the MLS-HPI (see link at beginning of this post).

I see no evidence to suggest a significant slowdown will occur in 2017. That is not to say a significant slowdown won't occur, but I don't see any evidence supporting it.

Vancouver Teranet and Housing Inventory Correlation Update

The past few months have seen a marked cooling in price changes and sales volumes in Metro Vancouver and I just got around to updating some scatterplots that relate the change in the Teranet House Price Index to the ratio of for-sale inventory to monthly sales (months of inventory, or MOI). Here are the updated charts, showing price changes for 3 months (quarter), 6 months (half) and 12 months (year):

An interesting development late last year saw prices drop significantly when compared to the available inventory — the model predicted more price strength in the face of a dearth of available inventory than what actually occurred. Prices have moderated somewhat but are still up 16% year-on-year, an indication perhaps that last spring's buying frenzy was anomalous compared to other years. Perhaps the spike in the spring of 2016 was more of a transient event and was not truly representative of underlying demand.

On the subject of inventory, inventory is very low right now, around 8000 or so for REBGV and inventory growth is nothing short of anaemic. As the market enters the traditionally robust spring selling season the lack of inventory will tend to place upwards pressure on pricing, all else equal.  I see no significant evidence yet to suggest that prices (as measured by the Teranet HPI) are exceptionally weak compared to current MOI, in the context of the historical price-change-to-MOI correlation. That stated, with inventory this low, the market may be operating in a different state compared to most past years.

REBGV Sales Update Through January 2017

REBGV released their stats package through January 2017. Here are the numbers:

January gives us an early read on market conditions preceding the busy spring selling season. It does not appear like conditions in 2017 are similar to 2016. Sales and new listings were both slightly on the weak side of average. As a result, inventory growth has not been high, but is average. Since inventory was extremely low through all of 2016, there is a long way to climb to bring inventory back to historical levels. The lack of inventory suggests that, even with low sales volumes, prices will likely remain robust through the spring. This is based on the historical high negative correlation between months of inventory and price changes.

2017 is an unprecedented year in that both sales and inventory are low. It is unclear to me how quickly, or if, the market can return to an average level of inventory and sales this year. Inventory can only climb by new listings significantly exceeding sales (and listing expiries not being high). Unless new listings pick up or sales slow further, there is no path for inventory to return to historical levels before the end of the spring selling season. (See 2006 for a potential template.)