Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter long weekend! Spring is definitely in the air and that generally means the real estate market is heating up.  Steadily improving weather brings more buyers out looking, more sellers preparing to hit the market and more variety of available inventory.

While March 2026 saw a tiny dip in single family home sales in the Cowichan Valley over those reported in March 2025, we saw a slight improvement in the number of new listings coming on the market and an uptick in the average selling price.  Our market here remains steady with overall minor changes in the number of sales, the average sale price and the number on new listings coming on the market for all types of residential real estate in the last 12 months to date.  Bare land continues to be an exception with noticeable drops in sales and inventory and a clear increase in the average sell price throughout the same period.

The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) reported that sales for all types of real estate dropped slightly in March 2026 over those reported in March 2025 however they were up over numbers in February and have increased by 1% year over year. Their April 1, 2026 Media release also reported Active listings for all types of real estate in the VIREB board area were up 2% year over year.  The release stated the benchmark price for a single-family home thru March 2026 in the Cowichan Valley was $765,200, down 2% from March 2025 and down touch from the board wide benchmark of $780,500, which remained unchanged from a year ago.  Overall, market activity here in the Valley and across Vancouver Island continues to remain balanced and steady.