Since the Vancouver real estate market has been declining over the last 9 months or so, I have been finding that a lot of people don’t want to sell and are taking their houses off the market. This is because they feel the prices have gone down too much so they don’t want to sell their house.

What I want to write about today, is that if you’re buying and selling in the same market, it is actually more beneficial for you to be selling in a low market rather than in a high market.  I’m not referring to down sizing, ie. people who are selling a million dollar home and are going to buy a $300,000 condo. I’m referring to people who are, for example, selling a townhouse and moving into a house where the price fluctuations aren’t that great.

For example, let’s say a young couple was selling their townhouse (in the high market) for $500,000 and they were buying a house for $600,000. Now, in the lower market, the house that they are selling is currently $400,000 (instead of $500,000), and the house they are buying is now $500,000 (instead of $600,000). So the market has come down roughly $100,000. The differences between their buy price and sell price is the same, (about $100,000), but where they can benefit from the lower market is the fees on the transactions. What I’m referring to is property transfer tax, commissions, taxes on the commissions, it’s all based on the purchase and sell amount. Therefore, in the example I just gave, that $100,000 drop in market price saves the couple approximately $4500 in fees. So, they were at the $500,000 - $600,000 range and are now at the $400,000 - $500,000 range. It’s the same money out of their pocket but they are actually benefiting because they are saving about $4500 in fees.

So to sum it up, it’s not the end of the real estate world if it’s a down market.  If you’re buying and selling in the same market, don’t sweat the details.  Get out there and buy and sell, you’re going to save some money!