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The Journal · 1 September 2026

What is a benchmark price, and how do you read the Langley numbers?

The short answerA benchmark is the board’s index price for a typical home of one type in one area, not the average of what sold, and it is the only Langley price that can be compared month to month. Read it beside four other figures: the share of listings that sold in the month (under 12% buyers’, 12 to 20% balanced, above 20% sellers’), months of supply, median days on market and sold-at-percentage-of-asking. One number alone will mislead you; the five together will not.
Analysis by Hamish Ross · 1 September 2026 · Data: September 2026 edition (August 2026 data)
The Evidence
MeasureWhat each figure is
BenchmarkThe MLS® Home Price Index price for a typical home of that type in that area; moves with the market, not with which houses happened to sell
Average and median sale priceWhat sold this month; swing with the mix (three estate sales lift an average by $100,000 with nothing else changing)
Share of listings soldSales in the month divided by homes for sale at month end: under 12% buyers’, 12 to 20% balanced, above 20% sellers’ (the board’s bands)
Months of supplyHomes for sale divided by the average monthly sales; the same arithmetic in every row on this site
Median days, sold at % of askHow long the typical sale took and how far under the asking price it closed

Why the benchmark and not the average

An average sale price answers “what did the houses that sold this month cost?”, and the answer depends on which houses sold. In a month when three Campbell Valley estates close, the Langley average jumps while the price of your Willoughby house has not moved. The benchmark strips that out: the board models a typical house for each area and type and tracks what that typical house is worth, so a 1.4% monthly change is a change in the market rather than in the mix. It is the number we quote, and the number we never call an average.

Why one number is not enough

A benchmark tells you where prices are; it does not tell you which way they are going. The pressure gauge is the share of listings that sold in the month, and price follows it by months. Months of supply says how long the shelf would take to clear at the current pace. Median days and sold-at-percentage say how the last sales went. A falling benchmark with a rising share sold and a shrinking shelf is a market that is about to stop falling; a flat benchmark on a growing shelf is one that has not finished. Read the five together, and read them for the type and the neighbourhood you are in, because Langley’s three home types and eleven neighbourhoods are not in the same weather.

Where the numbers come from, and when

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board publishes its package in the first days of each month with the previous month’s data; the September 2026 edition of The Langley Market Report, with the August figures, follows the package released on 2 September. Neighbourhood figures come from the board’s own database (InfoSparks), which goes finer than the package. Every figure on this site names its source and its month, so a reader can check it, and a benchmark from one edition is never compared with an average from another.

What we are watching nextThe September 2026 edition, out on the 2nd: the first read of August, the month that decides whether the summer’s tightening held.
The full answer

The five figures, and what each one answers

How to read a Langley market figure
FigureWhat it answersWhat it cannot tell you
Benchmark (MLS® HPI)What a typical home of this type in this area is worth this monthWhich way the market is going next; what your particular house is worth
Average or median sale priceWhat the homes that sold this month costWhether the market moved or the mix did
Share of listings soldThe pressure: under 12% buyers’, 12 to 20% balanced, above 20% sellers’Price, which follows it by months
Months of supplyHow long the shelf would take to clear at this paceAnything reliable in an area with a handful of sales a year
Median days, sold at % of askHow the last sales went: how long, how far under askingHow yours will go if it is priced off the neighbourhood’s figures

The benchmark is the board’s Home Price Index: a modelled typical home for each area and type, tracked month to month. It is the only Langley price that can be compared across months without the mix getting in the way, which is why every price on this site is a benchmark unless it says median or average, and why it is never called an average. The other four figures are the context that makes the benchmark mean something.

Three mistakes the numbers invite

Reading a Langley-wide figure as your street’s figure. Langley has eleven neighbourhoods and three home types that move at different speeds; in a single month the township’s townhomes can be a sellers’ market while its condos are balanced and its acreage corridors carry a year of supply. Reading a monthly change as a trend. One month is a data point; the board’s one-, three- and six-month changes together are a direction. Reading a thin area’s months of supply as a market. Otter District and County Line sell a handful of houses a year, so one listing moves their figures; we mark those rows as indicative and say so.

How this site uses them

Every figure names its source and its month. The Langley-wide activity figures (sales, new listings, homes for sale, days, sold-at-percentage) are the board’s monthly package, released in the first days of the month with the previous month’s data. The neighbourhood figures come from the board’s own database, which goes finer than the package publishes, and are labelled as such. Months of supply is computed on one arithmetic in every row. When the board publishes no benchmark for an area in a month, as with Murrayville detached in August 2026, the page says so rather than carrying a figure from another month. The September 2026 edition, with the August figures, follows the package released on 2 September.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between a benchmark price and an average price?

A benchmark is the board’s index price for a typical home of one type in one area, modelled so that it moves with the market rather than with which homes happened to sell. An average is the mean of the month’s sale prices and swings with the mix.

What share of listings sold counts as a sellers’ market?

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s bands: under 12% of active listings sold in the month is a buyers’ market, 12 to 20% balanced, above 20% sellers’.

How is months of supply calculated?

Homes for sale at the end of the period divided by the average monthly sales over the period. On this site it is the same arithmetic in every row, and thin areas are marked as indicative.

When does the Langley market report come out?

The board publishes its package in the first days of each month with the previous month’s data; The Langley Market Report follows it. The September 2026 edition carries August 2026 data and follows the package released on 2 September 2026.

Fraser Valley Real Estate Board MLS® August 2026 package, released 2 September 2026; sub-area and twelve-month figures from the board’s InfoSparks database, read 5 September 2026. Benchmarks are the board’s index price, never an average. Analysis: Hamish Ross.

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