Is 2026 a Good Time to Downsize in the Fraser Valley? What Falling Prices Mean When You Sell and Buy

Prices fell over the past year for houses, townhouses and condos across the Fraser Valley. A downsizer sells one home and buys another in the same market, so both prices count. The money the move leaves you depends on the difference between the two prices. From September 2025 to September 2026, the difference between a typical detached house and a typical townhouse became $76,900 smaller.

What does a falling market do when you sell one home and buy another?

A downsizer sells the more expensive home and buys the cheaper one. The money left over starts with the difference between the two prices. In this post we call that difference the gap. Selling and buying costs, such as commission, legal fees, moving and the property transfer tax a buyer pays, come out of it afterward.

When two prices fall by the same percentage, the gap between them falls by that percentage too. When they rise by the same percentage, the gap rises.

In this illustration the numbers and the unit are invented, so read 100 as any amount of money.

Source: FRIVE team illustration. Every number in this table is invented.

In the fall, the house loses 10 and the townhouse becomes 6 cheaper. The gap goes from 40 to 36, a loss of 4. In the rise, the gap gains 4.

Two things follow. The fall in your house price is larger than your real loss, because the home you buy became cheaper too: the house lost 10 and the gap lost 4. And a downsizer still has less money after a fall and more after a rise. A person who sells a cheaper home and buys a more expensive one has the reverse result.

What happened to the gap between September 2025 and September 2026?

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) covers Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, Mission, White Rock and North Delta. Each month it publishes a benchmark price: the board's price for a typical home of one type in one area. A detached house is a house that shares no walls with a neighbour. The boards call a condo an "apartment".

The board's September 2026 statistics package gives each benchmark for September 2026 and for September 2025.

Source: Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, September 2026 statistics package. The benchmark prices and their percentages are the board's. The dollar changes and both gap rows are our own arithmetic.

In one year the gap to a townhouse narrowed by $76,900, and the gap to a condo by $78,500.

So an owner who sold the benchmark house and bought the benchmark townhouse in September 2026 had $76,900 less left over than an owner who did the same a year earlier. These are benchmark figures before costs, and your own two prices will differ from them.

Now compare the percentages. The condo fell 9.3%, a larger percentage than the 8.8% for the house. The gap to a condo still narrowed, because 8.8% of $1,425,800 is more dollars than 9.3% of $509,100.

The same sum for six cities

FVREB's package gives both months for each of its cities. Maple Ridge reports to Greater Vancouver REALTORS. Chilliwack reports to the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board, whose figures appear on the Canadian Real Estate Association's statistics page. When we prepared this post on October 10, 2026, the latest Chilliwack month was August 2026.

Those two sources publish the latest benchmark and its one-year percentage change. We worked out the year-earlier price ourselves: the benchmark divided by 1 minus the published fall. For the Maple Ridge detached house, that is $1,155,900 ÷ 0.923 = $1,252,300, to the nearest $100. The percentages are rounded to one decimal place, so these year-earlier figures are our estimates. The same sum on the FVREB detached benchmark, $1,300,000 ÷ 0.912, gives $1,425,439. That is $361 below the board's own $1,425,800.

Source: benchmark prices from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, Greater Vancouver REALTORS (Maple Ridge) and the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board through CREA. Surrey is FVREB's "City of Surrey - Combined" row, which leaves out White Rock. Published one-year falls, in the order house, townhouse, condo: Maple Ridge 7.7%, 8.1% and 2.6%; Chilliwack 5.8%, 5.4% and 2.7%. CREA calls the Chilliwack house benchmark "single-family". The gaps, their changes and the two estimate rows are our own arithmetic.

The gap narrowed in all six cities, for the townhouse and for the condo.

It narrowed most in Mission: by $109,700 to a townhouse and by $115,400 to a condo. Mission's detached benchmark fell 13.2% in the year, and its townhouse benchmark fell 4.1%.

It narrowed least in Chilliwack, by an estimated $19,600 to a townhouse and $41,800 to a condo. Among the four FVREB cities in the table, Langley had the smallest changes: $68,200 and $52,000.

In the latest month, the gap between a house and a townhouse was largest in Langley, at $668,500, and smallest in Mission, at $271,200.

An owner who sells in one city and buys in another has a gap made from two different rows. Our post on selling in Surrey or Langley and buying in Chilliwack or Mission explains that move. Each city has its own downsizing guide: Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, Mission, Maple Ridge and Chilliwack.

How far have prices fallen, and for how long?

The board's chair, Ishaq Ismail, said in the release of October 5, 2026: "The Benchmark price for a single-family home is now $460,000 below its March 2022 peak." March 2022 is four years and six months before September 2026.

The package also has a table of changes over longer periods. These rows are for the whole board area.

Source: Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, MLS Home Price Index table, September 2026 package. The board sets every index at 100 in January 2005.

All three types are lower than three years earlier. The smaller home you plan to buy lost value over the same years as your house.

Over five years, the detached benchmark is 6.8% lower, and the townhouse and condo benchmarks are 1.5% and 1.3% higher. Over ten years, all three are higher.

The index column covers the whole period since January 2005. The board's note says an index of 120 means a 20% increase in price since that month. The detached index is 370.5, so in September 2026 the typical detached house is priced at 3.7 times its January 2005 level. For an owner who bought in 2005, the fall since 2022 removed one part of a long rise.

You may remember the price of March 2022. The releases do not say when prices will return to that level, or whether they will. We make no prediction either.

What is the market like for a seller and for a buyer in September 2026?

FVREB recorded 922 sales in September 2026, against 962 in September 2025. It counted 9,763 active listings of all property types, which the board says is 31% above the 10-year average for the season. An active listing is a property that is for sale right now.

The board said the Fraser Valley "has spent most of the last two years in a buyer's market with no change in September." A buyer's market has many properties for sale compared with the number of sales. The board measures it with the ratio of sales to active listings, and says a balanced market is typically defined by a ratio between 12 and 20 per cent.

Source: Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, September 2026 statistics package. The fourth column is our own arithmetic: sales divided by active listings, multiplied by 100.

As a seller, you have many competitors. The board counted 3,261 detached houses for sale and 337 detached sales in the month. The houses that sold took 45 days on average. Our post on how long it takes to sell a house in the Fraser Valley adds the weeks before the listing and after the offer.

As a buyer, you have a wide choice: 1,630 townhouses and 2,153 condos across the board's area. Townhouses sold at the highest rate of the three types. By our arithmetic, their 13.8 is inside the board's balanced range of 12 to 20, and houses and condos are below it. Our post is now a good time to buy covers the buyer's side.

Many houses for sale and a wide choice of smaller homes are the reasons we suggest most downsizers sell first, or have a sale the buyer can no longer cancel, before they buy.

What about interest rates?

You may buy your smaller home without a mortgage. The buyer of your house may need one, so the cost of borrowing matters to your sale.

The Bank of Canada's policy interest rate is its target for the interest that banks charge each other on one-day loans. The Bank says this rate affects other borrowing rates, including the prime rate that commercial banks use for mortgages and lines of credit.

The Bank's policy interest rate page shows 2.25% at every announcement since October 29, 2025. The latest announcement was on September 2, 2026, when the Bank held its target at 2.25%.

Should you wait for prices to rise again?

Waiting helps you only if prices rise, and a rise also raises the price of the smaller home. In the illustration above, a 10% rise added 10 to the house and 4 to the gap. Waiting a year also has costs and risks in both directions.

• Another year of bills on the larger house. Property tax, insurance, heating and upkeep continue while you wait. Add up your own bills for the last 12 months. That total is your yearly cost of staying.
• Your health. A move takes physical work and many decisions. Ask yourself how the stairs and the yard feel now compared with five years ago.
• Prices can go up or down, for both homes. If both fall again, your gap shrinks, as it did by $76,900 in the year to September 2026 for the whole board area.
• Interest, if you defer your property tax. BC's property tax deferment program lets owners aged 55 or older have the Province pay their property tax and repay it later with interest. For tax deferred for 2026 and later years, the Province says interest compounds monthly at 2% above the prime rate of its main bank. Compound interest is interest charged on earlier interest too. The Province's rate table shows 6.45% for October 1 to December 31, 2026. You repay the balance when you sell. Our post on property tax deferment and the seniors grant explains the program.

Reasons that do not depend on prices

This part is the FRIVE team's opinion. The best month to sell is known only afterward, so we suggest you decide on reasons you can check yourself.

Reasons to move that have no link to the market:

• The stairs, the yard or the repairs already take more effort than you want to give.
• The yearly bills on the house are large compared with your income.
• You want to live closer to family, a hospital or a bus route.

Reasons to wait that have no link to the market:

• The house suits your health and you pay its bills with no difficulty.
• A change in your family in the next year or two will decide where you should live.
• You have not yet visited homes of the smaller type, and you do not know if you would like living in one.

What would change this picture, and where can you check it each month?

Three numbers would change it.

1. The gap in your city. If the house benchmark rises by more dollars than the townhouse or condo benchmark, the gap widens and the same move leaves more money. If it falls by more dollars, the gap narrows again.
2. The speed of house sales. In September 2026 a detached house took 45 days on average.
3. Interest rates. The Bank of Canada's next scheduled announcement is October 28, 2026.

FVREB posts a new monthly market report for each month. The September 2026 report came out on October 5. We write a plain summary of each one, and the latest is our September 2026 Fraser Valley market update.

What do the September 2026 numbers suggest for your situation?

The table below is the FRIVE team's opinion. It is general, and it describes one month.

Source: FRIVE team opinion, based on the September 2026 figures above. General guidance only.

This post is general information about published market figures and published rules. It cannot tell you what your own house will sell for or what your own tax result will be. Confirm tax questions with your own accountant and legal questions with your own lawyer or notary before you sign anything.

Next step

Your own gap starts with one number: what your house would sell for now. Ask us for a free home value, and a BC-licensed REALTOR® will email you a price 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. You do not have to sell with us. The rest of our downsizing guide covers tax, strata fees and six Fraser Valley cities.