Fraser Valley home prices dropped for the 10th month in a row in January, bringing the benchmark price below $900,000 for the first time since spring 2021.

The benchmark price for a typical home fell one per cent to $897,200 — a drop of 6.9 per cent year-over-year, according to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB).

This wasn’t enough to encourage buyers to get into the market, however. The FVREB says January saw 619 sales, which is a 33 per cent decrease from December and is down 24 per cent from the same month in 2025.

Meanwhile, new listings increased 128 per cent to 3,078.

“January opened the year with negligible momentum,” said Tore Jacobsen, FVRB chair.

“Prices continued to weaken while at the same time selection remains high.”

Normally, Jacobsen says, this would mean a highly favourable situation for buyers, “however, the uncertainty of the past year or so continues to loom large, subduing buyer confidence and muting overall market activity.”

Meanwhile, it took an average of 55 days to sell a single-family detached home. This drops slightly to 53 days for condos and 50 for townhomes.

FVRB CEO Baldev Gill said many households are seeing affordability challenges well beyond housing costs.

“Rising day-to-day expenses, combined with wages that have not kept pace, have created significant financial pressure,” Gill said.

“As a result, potential buyers are choosing to be more circumspect with respect to purchasing decisions.”