The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board released its September 2026 statistics package on October 5. Board wide it was another soft month: 922 sales, down 4.2 per cent from September 2025, and a composite benchmark of $861,300, down 7.2 per cent from a year ago.
South Surrey and White Rock did not follow that pattern. Detached sales here rose 46.3 per cent year over year. Townhouse sales rose 62.1 per cent. That is the opposite direction from the board, and it is the most useful thing in this month's numbers.
Sales rose here while the rest of the valley slowed
FVREB reports White Rock and South Surrey as one area. Across the three main property types that area recorded 150 sales in September against 119 in September 2025, up about 26 per cent, while the board as a whole fell 4.2 per cent. Detached: 60 sales, against 41 a year ago and 48 in August. Townhouse: 47, against 29 and 33. Apartment: 43, against 49 and 52.
The increase sits entirely in houses and townhouses. Condo sales fell, in a market people assume runs on downsizers buying apartments.
Detached: the benchmark fell, the median did not
The detached benchmark for White Rock and South Surrey came in at $1.613M, down 2.2 per cent from August and down 7.4 per cent from $1.741M in September 2025. The median sale price went the other way, at $1.628M, up 0.2 per cent year over year. The average was $1.845M, down 8.1 per cent year over year but up 3.1 per cent from August.
Those numbers disagree because they measure different things. The benchmark is quality adjusted, so it tracks what a typical home here would sell for. The median and average only describe what happened to sell that month. With sales up 46 per cent the mix moved, and the median moved with it. If a page quotes an average sale price for White Rock and calls it a price increase, that is what you are looking at. Use the benchmark.
Townhouses are the weak spot
The townhouse benchmark for the combined area was $797,100, down 2.8 per cent in the month and 11.2 per cent from a year ago, the steepest twelve month townhouse decline of the eight communities FVREB reports.
White Rock on its own is weaker. FVREB's municipal market report, which separates the city from South Surrey, puts White Rock's townhouse benchmark at $720,800, down 7.7 per cent from August and down 19.7 per cent from September 2025. The city holds very little townhouse stock, so that figure moves on thin volume and one month is not a trend.
The longer horizon is the part that matters. FVREB's home price index has South Surrey and White Rock townhouses down 19.8 per cent over three years and down 5.6 per cent over five. Only one other community in the table, Abbotsford at down 0.5 per cent, is negative over five years at all. Every other one is up. That cuts against the assumption that a townhouse is the safer downsizing step. Here it has been the least safe of the three for several years.
Condos held up best, and they cost the most in the valley
The apartment benchmark for the combined area was $544,400, down 1.2 per cent in the month and down 7.7 per cent year over year. That is the mildest twelve month decline of the three types here, and the only one of the three with a positive five year number, up 3.3 per cent. It is also the highest apartment benchmark of any community FVREB tracks, ahead of Langley at $525,900. White Rock's own apartment benchmark was $543,200, down 5.0 per cent year over year and 0.2 per cent in the month, the smallest move in the September municipal report.
The offset is supply. Apartment actives fell to 310, down 20.3 per cent from a year ago, and new listings fell 29.8 per cent. Fewer sellers, fewer sales, and a benchmark that has stopped sliding quickly.
White Rock and South Surrey are not one market
The package combines them. The municipal report does not, and the gap matters before you price anything. White Rock's detached benchmark was $1.543M in September, down 9.1 per cent year over year. The combined area's was $1.613M, down 7.4 per cent. The city's houses are both cheaper and falling faster than the combined figure, which puts the South Surrey side above it on both counts. If you are pricing a house in Morgan Creek or Elgin Chantrell off a headline saying White Rock is down 9 per cent, you are using the wrong number.
Volume splits the same way. White Rock recorded 30 sales against 332 active listings in September, a sales to active ratio of 9 per cent on the board's all property types basis. The board overall was 9.4 per cent on the same basis. The city is running at the valley average, not above it.
Sales to active ratios by segment
FVREB publishes one ratio for the whole board and calls a market balanced between 12 and 20 per cent. It does not publish that ratio by area and type, so the figures here are calculated from the package's own counts, not quoted from it. For White Rock and South Surrey across the three main types, September works out to 12.6 per cent. Detached was 10.0 per cent, townhouse 16.6 per cent and apartment 13.9 per cent. The board's own three residential types came to 11.1 per cent on the same calculation.
A year ago this area sat at 8.5 per cent. It has moved from a clear buyer's market into the bottom of FVREB's balanced band in twelve months, and the segment that got there fastest is the townhouse, which is also where prices fell hardest. The price cuts produced the sales. Detached is the exception. At 10.0 per cent it is still a buyer's market despite the jump in sales. 600 active houses is a lot of competition.
The ten year numbers
FVREB's home price index carries a ten year column that almost nobody quotes. For anyone deciding whether to sell or hold it is the most useful page in the package. South Surrey and White Rock's composite index sits at 262.1, the lowest of the eight communities the board reports. Over ten years that composite is up 0.9 per cent, against 26.9 per cent for the board and 37.9 per cent for Langley. Over three years this area is down 21.4 per cent, the steepest of the eight. Detached is up 10.5 per cent over ten years, the smallest ten year gain in the table. Apartments are up 70.2 per cent, below most of the valley but the strongest of the three types here.
Read plainly, the premium end of the valley has given back most of what it gained, and the cheapest end of this market kept the most. That is not the usual story told about waterfront and view property, and it is in the board's own index.
If you are selling
Buyers came back in September, but they came back at lower prices. Detached sales up 46 per cent against a benchmark down 7.4 per cent is one event, not two.
Across the Fraser Valley the average house took 45 days to sell in September, a townhouse 38 and a condo 46. Those are board wide, and a house priced off 2022 comparables will take longer. Start with a home valuation, then look at what has closed within a few blocks in the last 60 days. For current price bands, see South Surrey real estate and White Rock real estate.
If you are buying
There are 1,193 active listings across the three types here, and new listings ran 21.9 per cent below last September, so the choice is wide but no longer widening. Houses leave the most room to negotiate. Condos leave the least. The Bank of Canada's policy rate has been 2.25 per cent since October 30, 2025 and has not moved at any scheduled decision in 2026. The next announcement is October 28, with one more on December 9. Nothing in the September data argues for waiting on a cut that may not arrive. Work out what you can carry at the current rate with the mortgage affordability numbers, then shop.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above comes from FVREB's September 2026 statistics package, released October 5, 2026, and its municipal market report for September 2026, the source for every White Rock only figure. The policy rate is from the Bank of Canada.
One limit worth stating. FVREB's smallest published geography is the municipality, so there is no published benchmark for Morgan Creek, Grandview Heights, Ocean Park, Crescent Beach or Elgin Chantrell, and anyone quoting one is estimating. For a specific pocket, comparable sales are the honest way to get there. Send me the address and I will pull them.