The average home sale price in the Alberni Valley broke the half-million dollar mark for the first time in history last year although the rate of increase is expected to slow down in 2022.

“At the very beginning of the pandemic, people who were going to put their house on the market decided not to,” said Chris Fenton Royal LePage Pacific Rim Realty . “It created a lack of supply.”

As a result, prices started to “skyrocket,” said Fenton, and people who were afraid that they were going to be priced out of the market “rushed in” to buy.

“Now we have a lack of supply and an exponential growth in demand,” he said.

Statistics show the average sale price for a single-family home in the Alberni Valley was up 26 percent in 2021, while the median sale price was up 28 percent. The number of homes sold in 2021 was up 19 percent over the previous year. 

The average time it took for a home to sell was down 47 percent compared to 2020, and the average home in the Alberni Valley sold 1.1 percent above the asking price.

Read the full story: Alberni Valley News