The MLS® Home Price Index just had its “annual spring cleaning” and is now, officially spick-and-span!
Every May, the methodology behind the MLS® HPI is reviewed and updated as required to ensure that its data is reflecting changes over time to neighbourhoods across Canada.
As REALTORS®, you know that the characteristics of homes in the areas that you specialize in are continuously evolving. Old homes come down, new homes get built, new sub-areas get developed and so on. What was a ‘typical’ or benchmark home 20 years ago, may not be ‘typical’ today, which is why we have the MLS® HPI.
MLS® HPI data updated going back to 2005
New index and benchmark price data are recalculated every May and released to members and the public every June. It’s important to note that the data isn’t just updated for the month of May; it’s updated going all the way back to the beginning of our MLS® HPI measurement, January 2005.
The recalculations are based on trends over time analyzing volume of sales, what sold, where it sold, as well as the homes’ characteristics. The MLS® HPI does require a minimum number of sales for the methodology to work, so if sales are too few, no benchmark price is generated.
The benchmark descriptions of each property type for each area and sub-area are also updated every year and available in a PDF report for members.
What’s changed?
To give you an example of how the index evolves, here in the Fraser Valley, some sub-areas ‘lost’ and some ‘gained’ property types. And home attributes changed as well for many of our areas.
As an example, a benchmark price for apartments is now available for the sub-area Port Kells (North Surrey). Meanwhile, the property types of 1-storey and 1-storey detached (bungalow-style) have been deactivated for Serpentine (Cloverdale) and Sumas Mountain (Abbotsford).
This year’s recalculation reflects 230 adjustments to Fraser Valley benchmark attributes – typical characteristics of homes – in that area. Some are minor like the year built changing from 1999 to 2001. Others are more major, like the typical lot size changing from 48,761 sq. ft. to 116,395 sq. ft. for a single family detached in Mission-West.
Also, you’ll notice that some benchmark prices have gone up or down – some significantly – depending on changing neighbourhood and sales trends.
Why use MLS® HPI with clients?
The MLS® HPI is recognized nationally in the industry as the most advanced, accurate tool to gauge home prices over time. One of the key advantages to using the MLS® HPI is that Realtors can rely on the fact that it is continually examined and revised to reflect the most up to date housing trends.
So, if you rely on the MLS® HPI – and you should rely on it – be sure to use the most current Fraser Valley Monthly Statistics Package and MLS® HPI graphs. For MLS® HPI data, as of June 2020, FVREB historical stats PDFs will be outdated and inaccurate.
The quickest and easiest way to find the most up to date Fraser Valley MLS® HPI data for both the current month AND any month all the way back to January 2005 is to head to our FVREB Stats Centre and select MLS® HPI Price and the length of time you want. The data within this tool is updated monthly and whenever there is an HPI recalculation.
Find the latest MLS® HPI Benchmark Attribute Report – FVREB on our MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) page on REALTORLink®.
For more info on CREA’s MLS® HPI, visit http://www.homepriceindex.ca or watch these helpful videos on CREA’s YouTube channel:
What is the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI)?
How to use the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI)?
Source: FVREB Communications