CAMBIE WEST CONDOS 2025

What's Been Happening in the West Cambie Condo Market?

Hey everyone,

It’s your friend in real estate here. I’ve had so many coffee chats and text exchanges over the past few weeks, and one big question keeps coming up: "What is actually going on with the market?"

There’s a ton of confusion out there, and I get why.

You might be looking at the BC Assessment letter you got back in January, which was based on what your home was "worth" way back in July 2024, and then you're hearing whispers from neighbours about how things have felt... well, different lately.

So, I decided to do a deep dive. I pulled all the core numbers for the apartment market specifically in our West Cambie neighbourhood, right from last summer (July 2024) up to last month (October 2025). I wanted to see the real story, beyond the headlines.

The short version? Things have cooled off. A lot.

After a surprisingly hot little moment this past spring, the market has decidedly and clearly shifted. We've moved away from the frenzy and landed squarely in what we call a "buyer's market."

If you’re a buyer, this is the news you’ve been waiting for. If you’re a seller, it just means we need a smart strategy.

But "cooler" doesn't tell the whole story. I want to walk you through exactly what's been happening, step by step, just as if we were sitting down with a cup of coffee.

Let's dig in.

Part 1: The "What's My Home Worth?" Question (The Price Story)

First, let's talk about the big one: prices.

When I talk about price, I'm not talking about "average price." Averages are messy. If three tiny one-bedrooms and one giant penthouse sell, the "average" price looks artificially high and doesn't help anyone.

Instead, I use the MLS® HPI Price, which stands for Home Price Index.

Think of it as the "typical" apartment. It tracks the price of the same "like-for-like" condo over time. This gives us a much more accurate and stable picture of what's happening to value.

So, let's look at the price journey for that "typical" West Cambie apartment, starting from when the government did its assessment snapshot.

The July 2024 Starting Point Back in July 2024, the HPI benchmark price was $800,100. This is the number that your 2025 BC Assessment was based on. At that moment, the market was relatively balanced.

The End of 2024: A Bumpy, Sleepy Ride Through the rest of 2024, the price pretty much just wobbled around that $800k mark.

• August 2024: $802,400 (a tiny bump up)

• September 2024: $796,000 (a little dip)

• October 2024: $795,700 (staying flat)

• November 2024: $792,000 (another small dip)

• December 2024: $793,300 (a slight recovery)

The Takeaway: If you were selling at the end of 2024, it was a pretty stable, if unexciting, market. Prices were solid, but not really going anywhere.

The Surprising Spring of 2025: The 'False Peak' Then, 2025 started, and things got... weird.

• January 2025: $801,700 (Right back to where we were last summer)

• February 2025: $794,700 (A sudden dip. People were nervous.)

And then... March 2025 happened. The benchmark price suddenly jumped to $812,200.

This was the peak. This was that moment this spring when it felt like the "hot market" was back. Sellers who listed in March did very, very well. It's the month everyone who is thinking about selling right now remembers. They're all thinking, "My neighbour got that price back in March."

The Great Cooldown: April 2025 to Today That March peak was, unfortunately, not a trend. It was a blip. The moment spring hit, the market put on the brakes. Hard.

• April 2025: $779,100 (A massive $33,000 drop from March)

• May 2025: $764,700 (Another $14,400 drop)

• June 2025: $753,500 (Another $11,200 drop)

In just 90 days, from March to June, the benchmark price for the same apartment fell by $58,700.

A Wobbly Summer and the Final Drop Now, this is where it gets interesting. Over the summer, it looked like things were trying to find a bottom.

• July 2025: $755,900 (a tiny bump)

• August 2025: $761,800 (another little bump)

• September 2025: $767,100 (a third little bump)

This likely gave some sellers a bit of false hope. It felt like maybe the drop was over and things were stabilizing.

But then, October 2025 data came in: $748,600.

All those summer gains were wiped out, and the price hit a new low for the period we're looking at.

The Price Story Summary:

• BC Assessment Date (July 2024): $800,100

• Spring 2025 Peak (March 2025): $812,200

• Current Price (October 2025): $748,600

So, from the "peak" everyone remembers in March, the typical apartment value is down $63,600, or about 7.8%.

This is the most important fact for any seller or buyer to understand right now. The market of March 2025 is gone. We are in a completely different price reality today.

Part 2: The "Why?" - Looking at the Market's Engine

So, why did this happen? Why the hot spring and the cold fall?

The answer is in my favourite metric, and it’s the one I use to predict where prices are going. It’s called the Sales-to-Actives Ratio (SAR).

That sounds like jargon, but I promise it's simple. It just compares the number of homes that SOLD in a month to the number of homes that were actively FOR SALE in that same month.

It's the purest measure of supply and demand. Think of it as the "gas pedal" of the market.

Here are the easy "Rules of Thumb" for this number:

• Above 20% (or 0.20): This is a Seller's Market. There are more buyers than homes. This creates competition, multiple offers, and prices go UP. (The gas pedal is floored).

• 12% to 20% (0.12 - 0.20): This is a Balanced Market. There's a healthy equilibrium. Buyers and sellers are on even footing. Prices are STABLE. (The car is in cruise control).

• Below 12% (or 0.12): This is a Buyer's Market. There are more homes for sale than buyers. Buyers have lots of choice, no pressure, and homes sit longer. Prices tend to go DOWN. (We're hitting the brakes).

Now, let's look at the SAR data for West Cambie apartments and see how it perfectly explains the price story we just talked about.

Late 2024: A Bumpy, Unsure Market

• July 2024: 15.1% (A perfect Balanced Market. And what were prices doing? They were stable. See? It works!)

• August 2024: 9.8% (Uh oh. A dip into a Buyer's Market.)

• September 2024: 9.2% (Still a Buyer's Market.)

• October 2024: 18.7% (A bounce back to Balanced!)

• November 2024: 13.9% (Balanced.)

• December 2024: 22.2% (Whoa! A sudden jump into a Seller's Market right at Christmas.)

This data explains why prices at the end of 2024 were so "wobbly." The market couldn't make up its mind! It was bouncing between a buyer's market and a seller's market from month to month.

The 2025 Spring Peak: The Engine Roars Now, let's look at the lead-up to the March price peak.

• January 2025: 19.5% (High-end Balanced, almost a seller's market.)

• February 2025: 9.7% (A weird, sharp dip back to a Buyer's Market. This is why prices dipped in Feb!)

• March 2025: 23.1%

There it is. That's the smoking gun. In March, the SAR shot up to 23.1%. It was officially a Seller's Market. The gas pedal was floored. More than 1 in 5 listed homes sold. And what happened to prices? They shot up to their $812,200 peak. The data matches perfectly.

The 2025 Cooldown: The Engine Stalls So, what happened right after that March frenzy?

• April 2025: 10.7% (A complete crash. We went from 23.1% straight down to a Buyer's Market in 30 days.)

• May 2025: 11.9% (Still a Buyer's Market.)

• June 2025: 13.8% (A small recovery to Balanced.)

This is why prices fell so fast from April to June. The "demand" (the SAR) simply vanished after the March rush.

The Summer 2025 Lull: Deep in Buyer Territory This, to me, is the real story of the year. Look at what happened this summer.

• July 2025: 9.2%

• August 2025: 8.3%

• September 2025: 7.5%

This is not just a buyer's market; this is a deep buyer's market. In September, less than 1 in 10 listed apartments sold. This is the slowest this market has been in a very long time.

This is why those little price bumps we saw in July/Aug/Sep were "false hope." The underlying engine (the SAR) was stalling. There's a "lag" in real estate. The terrible slowness of August and September is what caused the price drop we finally saw in October.

• October 2025: 14.3% (A bounce back to a Balanced Market). This is a good sign! It means activity picked up a bit in October. But we are still miles away from the 23.1% seller's market we saw in March.

The SAR Story Summary: The market's gas pedal was floored for one month (March), but we've been hitting the brakes or idling ever since, with an especially slow late summer.

Part 3: The "How It Feels" Story (How Long Homes Are Taking to Sell)

Okay, so we know prices are down, and we know why (supply is way up, demand is way down).

Now, let's look at the "symptom" of this market. This is the stat that tells you how the market feels for a buyer or seller. It's the Median Days on Market (DOM).

Again, "median" is not "average." It's the middle number. If 101 homes sell, the median is the time it took the 51st home to sell. This is great because it ignores the outliers (that one home that sold in an hour, and that other one that took a year). It tells us the typical experience.

The 2024 Experience

• July 2024: 21 days. (Pretty normal for a balanced market).

• September 2024: 12 days. (This was a quick little moment!)

• November 2024: 27 days. (Slowing down for winter).

• January 2025: 46 days. (Whoa! A very slow start to the year. Buyers were really taking their time. This tells me that even though prices were stable, sellers were waiting a long time for an offer).

The 2025 Spring Peak: The "Sold in a Weekend" Feeling Now, look at what happened when the SAR (the gas pedal) got floored in March.

• February 2025: 22 days

• March 2025: 14 days

And there it is. The feeling of the "hot market." When the SAR was 23.1% and prices peaked, the typical apartment was selling in just two weeks. This is when you hear about "sold in a weekend" and "bidding wars." This feeling is what sellers are still dreaming about.

The 2025 Cooldown: The "Patient" Market Now, look at what's happened since that two-week frenzy.

• April 2025: 23 days (Back to normal)

• May 2025: 18 days (A bit of a head-fake, things sold quick)

• June 2025: 22 days

And now, the summer slowdown...

• July 2025: 33 days

• August 2025: 32 days

• September 2025: 27 days

• October 2025: 33 days

The DOM Story Summary: The "hot-in-two-weeks" feeling of March is long gone. We are now in a market where the typical home is taking over a month to sell.

This is the definition of a buyer's market. When homes sit for 30+ days, the entire mood changes. Buyers don't feel rushed. They have time to see other properties. They have time to think. And most importantly, they have time to negotiate.

Part 4: So... What About My BC Assessment Letter?

This is a really important one. Let's tie it all together.

That letter you got in January 2025 was a snapshot in time. It was the government's best guess of your apartment's value on July 1, 2024.

On that exact day, the HPI Benchmark price for a "typical" apartment was $800,100.

For a little while, your assessment looked pretty good! By March 2025, the market had shot past that number to $812,200. Your assessment actually looked low.

But as we've just seen, the market has been dropping since then.

Today, the HPI Benchmark price (as of October 2025) is $748,600.

This means your official "assessed value" (from July 2024) is likely more than $50,000 higher than the current market value (from October 2025).

My friendly advice: Please, please, please... file that assessment letter away. It is not a useful tool for figuring out what your home is worth in today's (November 2025) market.

"Assessed Value" is what the government uses to calculate your property taxes. "Market Value" is what one, real-life buyer is willing to pay for your home today.

In a fast-moving market like this, they are almost never the same number.

Part 5: What This All Means For YOU (The Friend-to-Friend Advice)

Okay, that was a ton of data. Let's boil it all down to what it actually means for you.

If You Are a Buyer (or Thinking of Buying):

Honestly? This is your moment. This is the kind of market you've been hoping for. The panic is gone. The frenzy is over.

• You Have CHOICE: The SAR data proves it. There are way more homes for sale than active buyers. You don't have to fight over one new listing. You can look at 3, 4, or 5 places and actually compare them.

• You Have TIME: The Days on Market (DOM) data proves this. Homes are sitting for 30+ days. This means you can go see a place on Saturday, talk it over with your family, and think about it for the weekend. The pressure to "offer by 5 PM" is gone.

• You Can Use "Subjects": The power is back in your hands. You can write an offer that is "subject to inspection," "subject to financing," and "subject to reviewing the strata documents." These common-sense protections are back and they are normal again.

• You Have NEGOTIATING POWER: When homes are sitting for a month, and prices are trending down, sellers are much more open to a reasonable offer. The days of "no-subject, $50k over-asking" are over. You can negotiate on price, on dates, on inclusions.

I know there's a common fear of "trying to catch a falling knife." People worry, "What if I buy today and the price is lower next month?" It's a valid concern.

My advice is this: don't try to time the absolute bottom of the market. Nobody ever does. Focus on finding a home that you truly love, in a building you like, that you can comfortably afford and plan to live in for the next 5+ years.

Buying in this market is infinitely less risky and less stressful than buying in the "peak" frenzy of last March.

If You Are a Seller (or Thinking of Selling):

Okay, let's have a real, friend-to-friend chat. It's not March 2025 anymore. We have to accept what the data is telling us.

The worst thing we can do right now is price your home based on what your neighbour got nine months ago. That strategy, I promise you, will fail. Your home will sit, get "stale," and you'll end up chasing the market down, selling for less than if you had priced it right from the start.

In a buyer's market, our strategy has to be flawless. It comes down to three things:

• 1. Price: This is 90% of the battle. We have to price at today's market, not at your BC Assessment, and not at the March peak. We need to look at the most recent sales (like, last month!) and price ourselves competitively to get buyers in the door.

• 2. Preparation: When buyers have lots of choice, they are picky. They will choose the home that is bright, clean, de-cluttered, and move-in ready. That coat of paint, fixing the leaky faucet, replacing the stained carpet, and staging the living room... it all matters more than ever.

• 3. Patience: The data shows homes are taking 33 days to sell. This is the new normal. We can't panic if we don't get a "bully offer" in the first 48 hours. We need a solid 30-day marketing plan and the patience to let it work.

The good news? Homes are still selling! The October data shows that sales did happen. They just sold at October 2025 prices, not March 2025 prices.

The Final Takeaway

The West Cambie apartment market has clearly cooled. The data is not ambiguous. It's a solid buyer's market, driven by lower demand and more supply, which has pushed prices down from their spring peak.

As always, these are just the big-picture numbers for the entire neighbourhood. Every building, and every specific home, has its own unique story and value.

If you're feeling curious about what this means for your specific place, or you're a buyer who's wondering if now is the time to start looking, just send me a message. I'm always happy to pull the numbers for your building and just chat about it. No pressure, no sales pitch. Just good information.

Talk soon!