How Long Does It Take to Sell a House in the Fraser Valley in 2026? Five Stages, From the Decision to the Day You Are Paid

You may have heard one number for selling a house: 45 days. That is the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's average number of days to sell a detached house in September 2026, and it describes one stage of a sale. A full sale has five stages. This guide puts them in order, from the day you decide to sell to the day the money is paid to you, so you can plan a move and a purchase around your own dates.

What is the short answer, and what does "45 days" measure?

One stage of a sale has a published average. The lengths of the other four come from your own choices, your contract and one BC rule. Your total is the five added together.

1. Before the listing. You get a price range, do repairs and gather documents. A listing is the public notice that a home is for sale.
2. The listing period. It ends when you accept an offer.
3. Accepted offer to firm sale. The buyer can still cancel.
4. Firm sale to completion date. On the completion date, ownership passes to the buyer.
5. Completion and possession. The price is paid and the buyer moves in.

The 45 days comes from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB), which publishes sales figures for Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, Mission, White Rock and North Delta. Its September 2026 release says: "Across the Fraser Valley in September, the average number of days to sell a condo was 46 days, while a single-family detached home was 45 days. Townhomes took, on average, 38 days to sell."

The release gives no definition of the measure, and leaves open which day the count starts and which day it ends. We treat the figure as the board's number for stage 2, the listing period, and claim nothing further for it. Ask your real estate agent which two dates the board's system counts between, and whether the count starts again when a house is listed a second time.

It is an average. Some houses sold in fewer than 45 days and others took more. The release gives no count of the houses that took more.

It describes homes that sold. A house that is still for sale has no "days to sell" figure yet, however long it has been listed. The release gives no count of listings that ended without a sale.

It is one figure for the whole board area. The release has no days figure for a single city.

How long does it take to get a house ready to list?

The board's release has no figure for this stage. You and the people you hire set its length.

A price range. BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), the provincial regulator of real estate, says an agent "can use statistical data to show you what similar properties have recently sold for in your neighbourhood". Your assessment notice is a second source with an older date. BC Assessment says the notice arrives in January and shows the value as of July 1 of the previous year. Our post on assessed value and sale price explains the difference.

Repairs and clearing the house. You choose the jobs, and each company you hire gives you a start date. We suggest getting a start date and a finish date in writing for every job before you choose a listing date. Our post on getting an older house ready to sell covers which jobs to do.

Documents and the listing contract. BCFSA says a seller is responsible for giving the agent accurate information on the home's age, any loans on it, the condition of the roof and hot water heater, and the property taxes. You then sign a listing contract with the agent's company. BCFSA says it includes the duration of the listing agreement, so read that date before you sign.

To find your number, put a date beside each of these three tasks, given by the person who will do it. The latest of those dates is the earliest day you can list. Our downsizing checklist has the full list of tasks.

How long is a house for sale before it sells?

This is the stage the board measures. The table gives the average days to sell in September 2026 and in the same month one year earlier.

Source: Fraser Valley Real Estate Board statistics packages for September 2025 and September 2026. The last column is our subtraction.

How many houses were for sale?

In September 2026 the board counted 985 new listings of detached houses, 337 detached sales and 3,261 active detached listings. An active listing is a home that is for sale. Our own arithmetic: 337 ÷ 3,261 × 100 = 10.3 sales for every 100 listings.

The board uses this ratio to describe the market. It says a balanced market is typically defined by a ratio between 12 and 20 per cent, and that the Fraser Valley "has spent most of the last two years in a buyer's market". A buyer's market has many homes for sale compared with the number of sales, so each buyer has many houses to compare with yours.

Does the city change the answer?

The release's city tables give sales and active listings, so we worked out the same ratio for each area.

Source: Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, September 2026 statistics package. The last column is our arithmetic: sales ÷ active listings × 100. The first row is our addition of four board areas: Surrey Central (56 sales, 698 listings), Cloverdale (32 and 201), North Surrey (28 and 422), and White Rock and South Surrey (60 and 600).

These are counts for one month, and a small count moves the ratio quickly. Three more sales in Mission, which had 28, would have moved its figure from 12.1 to 13.4 (31 ÷ 231 × 100). Areas inside one city differ too: Cloverdale had 15.9 sales for every 100 listings and North Surrey had 6.6.

Maple Ridge reports to Greater Vancouver REALTORS, and Chilliwack to the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board. Ask an agent who works there for that board's current figure.

What can a seller control?

In the FRIVE team's opinion, the asking price and the condition of the house matter most in a market with many listings. A house priced above recent sales of similar houses waits while buyers choose other houses.

You control the asking price, the condition of the house, how easy it is for buyers to visit, and how fast you answer an offer. The number of other houses for sale, the interest rate on a buyer's loan, and the day a buyer makes an offer are outside your control.

How long from an accepted offer to a firm sale?

An accepted offer is a signed contract. BCFSA says it is legally binding as soon as you and the buyer have signed it, even when it contains conditions. Two periods then run at the same time.

The buyer's conditions. A condition is something that must happen before the sale goes ahead. In BC it is called a "subject". BCFSA's examples include a building inspection, the buyer's loan, and the sale of the buyer's present home. Each condition lasts until the date written in it: in the sample wording BCFSA gives agents, the buyer must be satisfied "on or before [date]". You and the buyer agree on that date when you sign. BCFSA says the buyer must use every reasonable effort to meet each condition, and that the contract ends if the buyer still cannot meet one.

The three business days. BC gives a buyer a short period to cancel, called the Home Buyer Rescission Period. BCFSA says the buyer may cancel within three business days after the offer is accepted, with no reason given, and that weekends and holidays are left out of the count. The buyer pays you 0.25% of the offer price, which is $2,500 on an offer of $1,000,000. You and the buyer cannot agree to give up the rule.

BCFSA's consumer guide says the period begins on the next full business day after acceptance. In its example, an offer accepted on a Monday afternoon can be cancelled until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. The guide adds that the conditions run at the same time as this period.

We call a sale firm when every condition is removed in writing and the three business days have ended. To find your number, read the date in each condition before you sign.

One condition can make this stage long: the sale of the buyer's present home. Your sale then waits for a second sale. BCFSA says a seller who accepts such an offer is still free to consider other offers. If your buyer cancels, the house needs a new buyer and stage 2 continues.

How long from a firm sale to the completion date, and when is the money paid?

BCFSA says the Contract of Purchase and Sale states the completion day. On that day legal ownership transfers to the buyer in exchange for the price. The possession date is the day the buyer can move in, and BCFSA says the two dates "are not necessarily on the same day". You and the buyer sign that contract, so you agree to both dates before you accept the offer. The BCFSA pages we read give no typical number of days, and we give none. Ask your agent which completion dates buyers in your area are proposing.

Before the completion date, a lawyer or a notary public, a legal professional who can handle a home sale, prepares the transfer. BCFSA lists the work, which includes ensuring your old mortgage is properly discharged and delivering the final amount due to you. Our post on a notary or a lawyer for a BC home sale explains the choice.

A mortgage and deferred property tax are both paid from the sale money. If you have either one, tell your lawyer or notary early.

A mortgage. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada says you must get a mortgage discharge when you sell your property. A discharge removes the lender's rights from the property. The agency adds that you may have to pay a penalty if you pay off the mortgage before the end of its term. Our post on mortgage penalties explains the amount.

Deferred property tax. BC lets owners aged 55 or older defer property tax: the Province pays the tax and places a lien, a legal claim, on the property. The Province says you must repay the loan in full when you sell. Interest is added on the 23rd of each month, so the balance changes each month. Payment by non-guaranteed funds, such as a personal cheque, takes at least 30 days to clear, and the lien may take several weeks to be removed after the loan is paid. The Province suggests guaranteed funds, such as a bank draft or a trust cheque. Our post on property tax deferment has the details.

When does the money reach you?

BCFSA's page names no hour and no day for the money to reach your bank account. Put two questions to your lawyer or notary. On which day will the money be in my account? If I am buying as well, how many days should I leave between the two completion dates?

How do you add the stages up for your own sale?

Source: FRIVE team summary of the pages linked in this guide. The 45 days is the FVREB average for detached houses, September 2026.

Here is one illustration of the sum, with inputs you replace.

• Stage 1: 30 days, an example number for your own dates.
• Stage 2: 45 days, the board's average for a detached house in September 2026.
• Stage 3: 10 days, an example number for the last date in your buyer's conditions.
• Stage 4: 60 days, an example number for the completion date in your contract.

30 + 45 + 10 + 60 = 145 days. We chose the three example numbers only to show the addition. If the listing period is 90 days, twice the board's average, the sum is 30 + 90 + 10 + 60 = 190 days. Stage 2 is the one stage you cannot set in advance, so plan with two or more versions of it.

What can make a stage shorter or longer?

These points are the FRIVE team's opinion. Stages 2 and 5 are covered above.

• Stage 1 is shorter when you get the price range before you decide on repairs.
• Stage 3 is shorter when the papers a buyer asks for, such as permits and repair receipts, are ready.
• Stage 4 is as long as you and the buyer choose. Decide the earliest and latest completion dates you can accept before an offer arrives.

How do you plan the purchase of the smaller home around these dates?

If the money from the house pays for the smaller home, the order of the two completion dates decides your plan. If the purchase completes after the sale, you need a place to live for the days between. If it completes first, you need a bridge loan, which is a short loan for those days.

RBC says a firm sale agreement must be in place on your existing home to qualify, and that terms are typically six months and can range from 90 days to 12 months or longer. TD says its bridge financing typically covers up to 90 days and asks for the sale agreement and the purchase agreement. Our post on selling first or buying first compares the two orders.

As a buyer you have the same three business days to cancel. If the smaller home is in a strata, the owners' group that runs a condo or townhouse complex, the Province says the strata must provide the information certificate, called Form B, within 7 days of a request. Allow for that in the dates of your own conditions.

For the prices of the house you sell and the home you buy, read whether 2026 is a good time to downsize. The rest of our downsizing guide covers tax, strata fees and six Fraser Valley cities.

This guide is general information about published rules and market figures. It cannot replace advice on your own contract, loan or tax return. Confirm legal questions with your own lawyer or notary, and tax questions with your own accountant, before you sign.

Next step

Stage 1 starts with a price range. Ask us for a free home value, and a BC-licensed REALTOR® will email you a range based on recent sales of homes like yours. Then enter that price in the downsizing calculator, with the price of the home you want, to see how much money is left after the move. You do not have to sell with us.