Photo: Robert Linsdell/Flickr
Move over, Vancouver. Surrey has had the second-fastest rising home prices in North America over the past five years, suggests a study of 83 major North American cities that also sees five other Canadian cities make the top 10.
Between 2013 and 2018, Surrey home prices soared 88 percent — which works out to an increase of $395,287 in Canadian dollars — according to Point2 Homes, an online real estate portal with millions of monthly visits.
The Point2 Homes team says population growth is a big factor supporting the rapid price appreciation Surrey is experiencing. Its relative affordability — at least compared to nearby Vancouver, where the benchmark price of a home is $1,019,600 — is also playing a part in creating demand.
“Employment, investments and average income are easily comparable to those in Vancouver. With more affordable pricing and demand growing, Surrey has been changing and people see the value in this market. Vancouverites are fleeing the crazy city prices and Surrey provides them affordability with its benchmark home price of almost $850,000,” reads an email statement attributed to analysts.
Should the market remain healthy, analysts say prices are expected to push higher. “There might be concerns if Surrey follows the same trajectory as Vancouver,” they add. In five years, Vancouver prices have grown by 68 percent, or $417,000. Point2 Homes notes that amount would be enough to buy a home in numerous Canadian markets.
In fact, the average price of a Canadian home is $455,000 — but that’s warped by high prices in Vancouver and Toronto. Without these two cities, the average price is about $360,000.
Detroit was the only city to surpass Surrey’s rate of growth with prices spiking 97 percent. However, Point2 Homes notes that over the five-year study period, prices only climbed $30,143, in US figures, which would simply be the pace of inflation in other cities. That lifted Detroit home prices to $61,328, which even with the exchange rate is a bargain by Canadian standards.
Beyond Surrey and Vancouver, four other Canadian cities made the top 10: Brampton, Hamilton, Mississauga and Toronto.
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Point2 Homes mined the numbers in the study from a variety of sources, including the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and the stateside National Association of Realtors (NAR).
There were five-year home price gains of more than 50 percent in 18 of the markets Point2 Homes examined, with Canada laying claim to six.
“In markets like Manhattan or Vancouver, which already boast stratospheric home prices, even the smallest changes impact homebuyers’ pockets in a very big way,” reads the Point2 Homes blog post about the study.
