Yellowknife Listings Down Significantly in May of 2024

Back in December of 2023, as our Century 21 team was piecing together our market predictions for 2024, the big question was whether or not last year’s wildfire evacuation would result in a significant number of Yellowknifers packing up and moving south.  If the month of May’s statistics are a reflection of a broader trend, then we have an answer to our question.  Not only did listing activity not increase from 2023, it plummeted by 33%.  People do not appear to be in a hurry to sell their homes and leave Yellowknife.

Sales were down as well, by 22%, but it’s pretty clear that this had a lot to do with the lower number of new listings.  One additional statistic to back up this theory – median average days on market dropped to 21 days from 27.5 days.  If we were to dig deeper into this metric, we would find that higher priced homes are taking much longer to sell, but notwithstanding that, homes are selling very quickly on average.

In Greater Vancouver, sales were also down by about 20% in May, but it was not the result of fewer listings.  In fact, listing activity increased and resulted in an inventory build-up of 46%.  Our inventory built up by only 6%.  It’s not always relevant to compare Yellowknife to Vancouver, but if the “hottest” market in the country is seeing such a huge buildup of inventory and a return to a “balanced market” and we are not, it says a lot about our market intensity.

Our average sale price was also up substantially, but this is more a reflection of the types of homes that sold (fewer small homes were available) than an indicator of appreciation in the price of individual homes.

Where will this all lead us?  If today’s Bank of Canada interest rate drop of 0.25% leads to an increase in demand, as is expected, it’s hard to see our already low inventory maintaining the current level.  Buyers may soon be faced with even fewer options.

The million dollar question remains, with such strong demand for housing in Yellowknife, why is there no land available for new developments in our city?  It seems clear that a new Lakeshore or Summit, or better yet, a new Frame Lake South, would be very well received by buyers.