Okanagan Real Estate, Buy sell or Stay put?
That's the question, the short answer is nobody really knows. But lots of data continues to be collected and scrutinized.
"An inventory Shortage Persists for Local Real Estate across the region," so says Association of Interior Realtors President Kim Heizmann in the December edition of their newsletter.
The Association represents realtors across a wide swath of BC's central interior (see Map). The Association is a formal amalgamation of the OMREB and SOREB
According to Heizmann, "Residential sales for the entire region serviced by Association decreased 10% over the same month last year, clocking in
at 1,063 residential sales in November. This was also less than October’s 1,115 sales." "there's a persistent drought of inventory in the market all year as new listings are just not coming on to market quick enough to meet demand,”
While a reduction in sales is expected for the holiday season the lack of homes on the market is making the slowdown even worse.
According to the Association's newsletter, "the supply of active residential listings was down 39% across the region compared to the 3,574 active listings during November 2020. The 916 new listings for November were 10% lower than last year's November’s units."
The low supply is a factor in rising prices.
Okanagan house prices on the rise since at least 2016
According to data published on The Mortgage Sandbox, house prices in the Okanagan have been on the rise since at least 2016, with only a few bumps.
Since August of 2020, Okanagan house prices have made significant gains
- Kelowna's average house price climbed from just over $700k to the low $900k area.
- Penticton and the South Okanagan average house prices have been a roller coaster ride over the last 16 months. Average house prices started to climb in August 2020 from the mid $600k, climbing to about $680k in Oct 2020. By November the average price was back down in the $600k region. Average house prices started to climb May 2021 saw average house prices climb to the low $800k. November 2021 saw a drop to the low $700k.
- Vernon and the North Okanagan average house prices saw the largest average increase over the last 16 months. Mid $500k in August 2020, to $680k November 2021.
Source: Mortgage Sandbox https://www.mortgagesandbox.com/vernon-real-estate-forecast
Average Okanagan house price since 2016 to present
- Vernon, $339k to $687k 102% increase.
- Penticton, $433k to $709k 64% increase
- Kelowna, $488k to $947k 94 % increase
Average house prices over last three month period published
- Kelowna and the Central Okanagan, 5.3% increase
- Vernon and the North Okanagan, 8.2% increase
- Penticton and South Okanagan 7.9%. drop
Sources: the association of interior realtors https://www.interiorrealtors.ca/board-news/news/ Mortgage Sandbox, OMREB and SOREB
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