In June, more townhouses sold in the Comox Valley than came on the market. Twenty-two were listed. Twenty-eight sold, meaning buyers absorbed inventory faster than new listings arrived.
Last month I wrote that the townhouse and condo surge was the quiet story of this spring. A month on, it’s not so quiet, and it’s helping keep transactions moving across the market.
The June numbers
The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board released its June figures on July 2. Here’s our corner of the Island.
The benchmark single-family home in the Comox Valley came in at $864,500 in June, down one per cent from a year ago and a small step down from May’s $870,700. For context, Campbell River sits at $680,900, Nanaimo at $816,400, and Parksville-Qualicum at $929,500. The Valley is holding its familiar spot near the top of the mid-Island market, and price is doing what it’s done all year: a slow, shallow drift, not a slide. On a benchmark home, one per cent over a full year is about $8,700. That’s the market exhaling, not falling.
Sixty-seven single-family homes sold here in June, down eight per cent from last June’s 73. The typical home took 42 days to sell and fetched about 98 per cent of its asking price, both essentially unchanged from a year ago. Active single-family listings sat at 198, below the 215 we had a year ago. Set those 198 listings against June’s 67 sales and you get about three months of inventory, the range market watchers usually call balanced. Across the whole VIREB region the picture is similar, with single-family inventory at 1,501 homes, slightly under last June. Buyers are cautious, but they are not being buried in choice. This is not a market drowning in supply.
Then there’s the attached market. Townhouse sales were up 22 per cent over last June, and for the first half of the year they’re running 23 per cent ahead of 2025, with 117 sales against 95. Average townhouse prices in June were up about seven per cent year over year. Condos were quieter here, with 18 June sales against 20 last year, but across the VIREB region condo sales rose 11 per cent. The demand for lower-maintenance housing that I flagged last month is now the most consistent trend in the data.
Beyond June
Six months in, the Valley has recorded 301 single-family sales, down about ten per cent from 333 in the first half of 2025. The Town of Comox led the way with 73 of them, followed closely by Courtenay East at 69. And the busiest price band in the second quarter wasn’t the entry level: it was $1 million to $1.25 million, with 46 sales, ahead of the $800,000-to-$900,000 range at 40. Good homes at confident prices are still finding buyers, right up into seven figures.
The board’s CEO, Jason Yochim, described June buyers as taking a “cautious, wait-and-see approach” tied to economic uncertainty, and noted that “buyers are being more measured, so sellers need to be realistic.” But he also repeated the line that mattered last month and matters more now: appropriately priced properties are still drawing interest, “including some multiple-offer situations,” while homes priced above market expectations sit.
The financing backdrop hasn’t moved. The Bank of Canada held its rate at 2.25 per cent again on June 10, the fifth straight hold, and as of early July, markets broadly expect another hold at the July 15 announcement. A buyer who could afford a home in January can afford the same home today. Anyone waiting for a rate cut to make the decision for them will likely still be waiting come fall.
What this means if you’re making a move
If you own a townhouse or condo, this is your market. When buyers absorb more homes than sellers list in a single month, the leverage in that segment belongs to you. Priced correctly, an attached home in the Valley right now sells quickly and close to asking.
If you’re selling a detached home, the picture demands more precision but rewards it just as well. Inventory is lower than last year, so a well-presented home doesn’t have much genuine competition. But the buyer pool is more measured than it was, and June’s numbers show the same split I described in June: the sharp listings attract offers, sometimes several, while the ambitious ones feed days-on-market statistics. With homes fetching 98 per cent of asking on average, the negotiation isn’t happening at the offer table anymore. It’s happening the day you set the price.
One reason detached homes keep finding buyers is that the attached market is freeing up the next one in line. Someone selling a condo can buy a townhouse; someone selling a townhouse can buy a detached home. That chain is healthy right now. So if your eventual buyer is a downsizer, the busiest townhouse market in years is quietly working in your favour: their next home is selling fast, which makes them confident enough to write on yours.
For buyers, especially at the higher end, the data offers an opening. Homes priced above the market are taking longer to sell, and patience there is being rewarded. Just don’t expect to find a bargain among the well-priced listings. Those are the ones drawing the crowds.
Halfway home
By the halfway point of the year, the pattern is becoming hard to miss. Prices have moved about one per cent in a year, the Bank of Canada hasn’t moved at all, and the only sellers having a hard summer are the ones asking the market to meet them where they’d like it to be. After the last five years, the absence of drama might be the most remarkable thing about this market.
If you’re curious what your home would do in this market, whether it’s a Cumberland character house or a Crown Isle townhome, I’ll walk you through the comparables and give you a straight answer. If that answer is “wait until fall,” you’ll hear that too.
Market data from the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) June 2026 statistics, released July 2, 2026. Benchmark prices reflect the MLS® Home Price Index for single-family homes excluding acreage and waterfront. Every home is different; numbers here describe the market, not your property.