North Vancouver real estate market: what August 2026 actually did

Updated 8 September 2026. This page tracks the North Vancouver real estate market, and West Vancouver’s, using the Greater Vancouver REALTORS® figures for August 2026, released on 2 September. So I rewrite it in the first week of every month.

If you are buying or selling on the North Shore, three numbers decide almost everything: how many homes sold, how many came to market, and what the benchmark price did. Above all, everything below comes from the board’s own monthly statistics package, not from an estimate.

August 2026 at a glance

Area	Sales	vs Aug 2025	New listings	vs Aug 2025
North Vancouver	138	+0.7%	293	−2.7%
West Vancouver	52	+23.8%	142	+3.6%
Metro Vancouver	1,869	−4.6%	4,100	−3.0%

However, metro-wide, August sales came in 20.7 per cent below the ten-year seasonal average of 2,356. Meanwhile, new listings were roughly normal. Active inventory across the region sits at 15,798 — 26.2 per cent above its ten-year average.

Therefore that combination, normal supply arriving into weak demand, is why the sales-to-active listings ratio for the region is 12.3 per cent: 9.6 per cent for detached homes, 15.1 per cent for townhouses, 13.7 per cent for apartments. Consequently, under roughly 12 per cent is generally read as a buyer’s market.

What a North Shore home costs right now

To begin with, these are MLS® Home Price Index benchmark prices — the board’s estimate of a typical home of that type, which is a fairer read than an average sale price because one $12 million sale cannot distort it.

North Vancouver

Property type	Benchmark price	1 month	1 year	5 years
Detached	$2,088,400	+0.5%	−3.6%	+5.3%
Townhouse	$1,247,400	+0.8%	−3.1%	+9.9%
Apartment	$770,300	−2.0%	−3.4%	+8.4%
All types	$1,305,600	−0.2%	−2.5%	+4.7%

West Vancouver

Property type	Benchmark price	1 month	1 year	5 years
Detached	$2,849,200	−1.7%	−7.5%	−9.3%
Apartment	$1,122,600	+1.7%	−9.2%	−0.6%
All types	$2,269,000	−1.1%	−5.8%	−13.6%

Notably, there is no West Vancouver townhouse benchmark this month. Because only five attached homes sold there in August, which is too thin a sample for the index to publish, that is worth knowing in itself if you are trying to price one.

What the North Vancouver real estate market did in August

The two sides of the North Shore moved in opposite directions. The North Vancouver real estate market and West Vancouver’s do not behave alike, and August made that obvious. Specifically, North Vancouver sales were flat against last August — 138 against 137. Conversely, West Vancouver sales rose almost a quarter, 42 to 52. So on the face of it West Vancouver had the better month.

In fact it did not. West Vancouver is selling because it has repriced. In other words, its benchmark is down 5.8 per cent in a year and 7.5 per cent for detached homes, while North Vancouver is down 2.5 per cent. In short, buyers came back to West Vancouver at the new price, not the old one. Consequently, if you own there and are working from a 2022 number in your head, that is the gap.

North Vancouver detached and townhouse prices actually rose in the month — up 0.5 and 0.8 per cent — in a region where the composite fell 0.6 per cent. By contrast, apartments went the other way, down 2.0 per cent in a single month, the weakest segment on the North Shore. So if you are selling a North Vancouver condo this autumn, that is the number to plan around.

Meanwhile, sellers pulled back hard. North Vancouver new listings fell from 385 in July to 293 in August, a 24 per cent drop in one month. Admittedly that is partly seasonal, but it also means less competition for anyone listing in September than there was in the spring.

The ten-year picture, which almost nobody prints

Over ten years the North Vancouver benchmark is up 15.1 per cent. Over the same ten years West Vancouver is down 26.9 per cent.

Those are the board’s own index numbers, and they are not a typo. A typical West Vancouver home is worth materially less today than an equivalent home was a decade ago, while North Vancouver has ground upward. One bridge apart, and the two sides of the North Shore are on completely different trajectories. It is the single most useful thing to understand about the North Shore before you buy on either side of it.

Where mortgage rates sit

On 2 September 2026 the Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25 per cent. The Bank Rate is 2.50 per cent and the deposit rate 2.20 per cent. Meanwhile the Bank pointed to a broadening recovery, but also to increased upside risk to inflation from tariffs and the conflict in the Middle East.

The next scheduled announcement is 28 October 2026. Until then, fixed mortgage rates move with bond yields between announcements, so a hold does not mean your quote stays still — instead, check a live rate rather than this paragraph on the day you need one.

GVR’s chief economist, Andrew Lis, likewise named rates directly as one of the reasons the market is soft, alongside slower immigration and reduced investor demand: rates that “aren’t low enough to incentivize robust buying activity.”

What I am watching in September

Whether North Vancouver apartments keep falling. Down 2.0 per cent in one month is the sharpest move on the North Shore. After all, one month is not a trend; two is.
Whether West Vancouver sales hold at the new price level. August was strong there. Hence if September repeats it, the repricing has found a floor.
September listing volume. August new listings dropped 24 per cent in North Vancouver. Generally, autumn brings a second wave — if it does not arrive, inventory tightens.
The 28 October rate decision, and what fixed rates do in the weeks before it.

Before you rely on any of this

Call me, or call the source, before you act on a number on a web page — including this one. No summary of the North Vancouver real estate market can price your particular home. Because these figures describe a whole municipality in a single month, your street, your building and your price band can be doing something completely different. Moreover, by the time you read this the market has moved on. Finally, board statistics are also revised.

Therefore, if you want the numbers for your actual block rather than your municipality, that is a phone call: (778) 903-7306.

How these numbers are defined

Sales and new listings are MLS® transactions reported by Greater Vancouver REALTORS® for the calendar month, summed across detached, attached and apartment.
North Vancouver in the board’s tables is one reporting area covering both the City and the District of North Vancouver. North Vancouver is two separate municipalities and the board blends them into a single benchmark, so a North Vancouver figure here is not specific to either one. West Vancouver is a third, separate municipality.
West Vancouver in the board’s tables means West Vancouver / Howe Sound, so it includes Lions Bay and other Howe Sound properties. Bowen Island is reported as its own separate area.
Benchmark price is the MLS® Home Price Index — a modelled price for a typical home of that type in that area. Rather, it is not an average sale price, and it is the more stable of the two.
Sales-to-active listings ratio is the month’s sales divided by active listings. Sustained readings below about 12 per cent are usually described as a buyer’s market, above about 20 per cent a seller’s.
Sources: Greater Vancouver REALTORS®, Residential Market Report, August 2026, published 2 September 2026; and the Bank of Canada policy announcement of 2 September 2026.