When I first read the question that sparked this whole discussion—“when is the market going to get back to normal?”—I couldn’t help but pause for a moment, because it really isn’t as simple as it sounds, and that’s exactly where Andrew Lis dives in with his latest GVR Economics post. It’s actually a thoughtful way to reframe how we look at the Greater Vancouver housing market, especially after years of dramatic ups and downs.

  So what does “normal” even mean? On the surface, it feels like something we should all agree on, but as the article explains, “normal” depends a lot on who you ask. Buyers, sellers, investors, policymakers—we all define it through our own experiences and expectations. From an economic standpoint, the article describes a normal market as one where buyers and sellers are both active, supply and demand are relatively balanced, prices move steadily in line with inflation rather than spiking or crashing, and there aren’t major external shocks disrupting the system.

  What really stood out to me was how the article uses historical data to see when the Greater Vancouver market might have actually met those conditions. By comparing sales activity and inventory levels against long-term averages, it becomes clear that true equilibrium is surprisingly rare here. Over the past decade especially, we’ve seen extreme low-inventory periods, intense competition, rapid price growth, and then sharp slowdowns—none of which truly fit the definition of “normal.”

  Rather than suggesting that we’re about to return to some perfect balance, the article gently challenges the idea that such a state is something we should even expect. Yes, there are signs that recent activity has been moving closer to long-term norms, with sales and listings behaving a bit more predictably, but the broader message is that the market is still evolving and adjusting, not snapping back to a fixed baseline from the past.

  For anyone navigating real estate right now—whether you’re buying, selling, or simply watching from the sidelines—that perspective can be surprisingly grounding. Instead of waiting for the market to feel “normal” again, it may be more useful to understand what balance looks like today, under current economic conditions, interest rates, and housing policies. Normal, in that sense, isn’t a destination we suddenly arrive at, but a moving reference point that helps guide better decisions.

  So the real question might not be when the market will return to normal, but rather—how do we define “normal” now, and what does that mean for the choices we’re making in today’s Greater Vancouver housing market?

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