Chilliwack's Housing Inventory Just Hit a 10-Year High & And Most People Buying a House Are Still Sleeping On It!

Buying a Home in Chilliwack

By Matt Paisley | The Welcome Matt | March 4th 2026

Est. reading time: 7 minutes

Let me show you a number that stopped me in my tracks when I pulled the December stats.

Active listings in Chilliwack finished 2025 at their highest level for that month in over a decade; sitting 41.3% above the 10-year average. We had 922 homes on the market heading into the new year. By January, only 115 of them sold.

Read that again. Nearly a thousand homes available. 115 sold.

That gap, between what's sitting on the market and what's actually moving, tells you everything you need to know about where the power currently sits in this market. And right now, for the first time in years, it sits squarely with buyers.

So here's the question I keep hearing when I share this with people: "If it's such a great time to buy, why isn't everyone buying?"

It's a fair question. And the answer has less to do with the numbers and more to do with human nature.

Why Buyers Are Still Waiting (And Why That Works in Your Favour)

After the rollercoaster of the last few years: the frenzy of 2021, the rate shock of 2022, the uncertainty of 2023 and 2024, a lot of would-be buyers developed a kind of market fatigue. They've been told "now is the time" so many times, by so many people, that they've learned to tune it out.

That caution is understandable. But it's also creating an opportunity. When buyers hesitate collectively, the leverage shifts. Sellers who need to move (and there are plenty of them right now) have fewer offers to consider. Negotiating room that simply didn't exist three or four years ago is back on the table. Conditions. Price adjustments. Closing flexibility. These aren't radical asks in today's Chilliwack market; they're reasonable, and sellers know it.

The benchmark price for a single-family home in Chilliwack came in at $898,700 in January 2026; down about 1.4% from the same time last year. The overall composite benchmark sits at $733,500. Prices aren't collapsing; they're settling. And in a market with 6.9 months of inventory (well above the long-run average of 4.3 months) that modest softening comes packaged with something prices alone don't capture: time and choice.

You can actually look at a home more than once. You can get an inspection done properly. You can sleep on a decision without waking up to find you've been outbid. That may sound like a low bar, but for anyone who tried to buy in Chilliwack between 2020 and 2022, it's a genuinely different world.

Here's Why Spring Changes the Math

This is the part most buyers miss and it's the most important thing I'll say in this post. The window I'm describing right now is not permanent. It's seasonal, and it's closing. Every year around late February and into March, something shifts in the Fraser Valley real estate market. It's not always dramatic and you won't see it in a single day's stats but it's real and consistent. Buyers who spent the winter watching from the sidelines start to feel the pull. They've had their post-holiday conversations, they've run their numbers with a mortgage broker, and something in the longer days and warming air tells them it's time to act. When that collective psychology tips, inventory gets absorbed faster. New listings come to market, yes, but so do new buyers and often in larger numbers than the new supply. The negotiating leverage that currently favours buyers doesn't disappear overnight, but it compresses. Meaningfully.

The buyers who move in March are negotiating against a motivated seller with few other options. The buyers who wait until May are often competing against two or three other offers on the same property, and the conditions that seemed reasonable two months earlier are suddenly off the table. This isn't speculation, it's the pattern I watch play out in Chilliwack every year. The market doesn't wait for you to feel ready.

What "Priced Right" Actually Means Right Now

Here's where today's market gets interesting, because it isn't uniform. There's a tale of two markets happening simultaneously in Chilliwack right now, and understanding the difference is the key to buying well.

Overpriced listings are sitting. Homes where sellers are still anchored to 2021 or 2022 peak values are accumulating days on the market. Some of them have been relisted multiple times. In a market with this much inventory, buyers simply scroll past anything that looks like a seller testing their luck, because they have the luxury of doing so.

Accurately priced listings are moving. Sometimes quickly, and occasionally with multiple offers. These are the homes where the seller, often working with an agent who's being straight with them, has priced to the current market reality. When a well-maintained home in a good Chilliwack neighbourhood hits the market at a price that reflects today's benchmark rather than last cycle's peak, it gets attention fast.

For you as a buyer, this means being able to tell the difference. Not just based on the listing price, but based on days on market, price history, condition, and neighbourhood comparables. That's where having the right representation matters, not just someone who can open a lockbox, but someone who can tell you within ten minutes of walking through a door whether a property is priced like an opportunity or priced like a wish.

Why My Background Actually Changes What I Can Do For You

This is where I'm going to step away from the standard agent pitch, because I think it matters more than most people realize. Before real estate, I helped build and run a multi-million dollar business. That means I've sat across the table in high-stakes negotiations more times than I can count; deals where the numbers mattered, the details mattered, and someone had to hold the line when it would have been easier to fold. That skillset translates directly to what I do for buyers now. Knowing when to push, when to hold, and how to structure an offer that gets accepted without leaving your money on the table isn't something you learn in a licensing course.

I also came up through the general construction industry, which means I have a practical eye for what I'm looking at when we walk through a property together. I'm not just reading the staging, I'm reading the building. What's been done, how it was done, and whether it was done right. That doesn't replace a home inspector, and I'll always recommend a thorough one, but it does mean we can have a smarter conversation about a property before we even get to that stage.

In a market where you have 900+ homes to choose from, that combination matters. It's the difference between identifying a property that's genuinely priced well for what it is; solid bones, real value, real opportunity and one where the fresh paint is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Chilliwack has a lot of character homes, acreages, older builds, and properties with renovation history. That's exactly the kind of inventory where experience beyond the transaction makes a real difference to what you pay and what you end up owning.

The Bottom Line for Chilliwack Buyers This Spring

Let me be direct, because that's how I prefer to operate. We are in a genuine buyer's market right now. Inventory is high. Days on market are elevated. Prices have softened modestly. Sellers are negotiable. That combination hasn't existed in Chilliwack at this level in well over a decade.

That window is real, and it's open right now but it won't stay open indefinitely. As spring activity builds through March and into April, buyer demand will absorb some of that inventory, motivation among sellers will shift, and some of the leverage you have today will normalize.

If you've been thinking about buying in Chilliwack; whether that's your first home, a move-up property, an acreage, or an investment, the math and the timing are pointing in the same direction right now. The question is whether you're going to take advantage of the window, or read about how you should have in the fall.

I'm not here to pressure you into anything. But I am here to give you a straight read on what's actually happening in this market, help you understand what a given property is actually worth, and walk you through a process that protects your interests from offer to keys in hand when buying a house in chilliwack.

If you want to talk through your situation with no obligation and no pitch then I'd genuinely love to connect.

Matt Paisley | The Welcome Matt Fraser Valley Real Estate | Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Langley, Mission, Hope & Agassiz 📱 604-991-5028 🌐 thewelcomematt.ca

Market data referenced in this post reflects Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board statistics for December 2025 and January 2026. All figures are benchmarks and averages; individual property values vary by neighbourhood, property type, and condition. This post is intended for general informational purposes. For advice specific to your situation, please reach out directly.