Our April Housing Market is Strong and Steady!!

As expected, property sales continued to outpace last year with an 8.14% increase compared to April of 2014. Year to date, market activity is up 17.75% over this time last year. With fewer listings being taken in April this year, they were marginally down 1.18%. But, being of particular interest, are days on market which have dropped substantially averaging 85 days compared to 103 last year.
Single family homes year to date are averaging only 71 days on the market before they sell. Given the ongoing demand for housing in our Kelowna market with fewer listings coming on stream and taking less time to sell, the inevitable is starting to happen: prices are moving up. In the month of April, the average single family home sold for just over the half a million dollar mark at $501,288, up 7.05% over last year. The median increase was even higher at 8.08%. Condos so far this year also reflect a similar situation with the average price of $253,545 and only 91 days to sell. Some segments of our market, notably the entry level single family homes, are firmly in seller’s market conditions.

So far, the lower price of Alberta oil has not had an effect on our market activity. Albertans are back to making up 17% of our buyers but it is the local buyers that are driving our market at this time with the continued low interest rates and the positive consumer economic outlook. The recent historic election of an NDP government in blue Alberta will be interesting to watch and to see how the business community reacts.Within minutes of the NDP being declared winners of a majority government, I got a text from a friend of mine who said the time had now come to move to the Okanagan. I’m sure that was an overreaction but the baby boomers just keep retiring and keep looking for a reason to come to the beautiful Okanagan… Just like so many of us have already done.

Recreational property values enjoy major rebound in some areas of B.C.

Three Vancouver Island locations, as well as Kelowna, are enjoying a recreational-property resurgence, a new RE/MAX report has shown.

The median price in Tofino on Vancouver Island leaped ahead 24 per cent from May 2013 to May 2014, with nearby Ucluelet recording an 11-per-cent jump in the same period. Mount Washington the Vancouver Island ski resort and the year-round getaway of Kelowna had housing prices climb seven per cent in the last year.
Part of this is Canadians are once again finding value north of the border, after a serious housing slump in the U.S. and a powerful loonie saw many choose Phoenix over the Okanagan when it came to getaways.
Now with the U.S. market rebounding, prices are up 25-30 per cent in Phoenix and a diving dollar trading in the 90-cent-US range has turned eyes northward. We are seeing Canadians investing in Canada again. People are looking at lifestyle and legacy. With technology the way it is, you can do business from your second home here in Kelowna.

Kelowna's Market Remain Strong!

Traditionally, July tends to be somewhat of a quieter month than May or June but this year was certainly not the case. July continued the strong activity we saw in June with 472 properties sold, an increase of 13% over July, 2012 according to the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board statistics. Our RE/MAX Kelowna office saw an outstanding increase of 46% over the same month last year giving us close to a 35% market share in July.

The board stats also show an increase again this month for average sales price at 3.45%. Single family homes were up 2.72% and condos up 14.43% indicating that if buyers are still sitting on the fence waiting for prices to drop likely have missed their window of opportunity. This does not mean we are now going to start seeing significant price increases but it does indicate we are in a solid balanced market. Meaning sellers are still going to have to list their properties competitively but buyer’s can no longer think they can pick up a steal of a deal with a low ball offer.

It will be interesting to see if this momentum continues into August and September before we see the seasonal market slow down.

It is heating up in Kelowna and so is the Market!

Kelowna's sales activity took a big jump in April compared to earlier months with unit sales seeing a 19% increase in activity compared to the same month last year. Single family home sales jumped almost 21%. This recent activity now has the market on par to last year given the slower start to the year with a total of 1,190 units sold in the greater Kelowna area year to date. Listing inventory is now down about 10% compared to last year.

The average price of a single family home is just slightly lower than last year at $441,182 compared to $452,859. The median price remains the same for all residential properties however at $349,500. With the expected increased sales activity to continue in our area over the next few months, it will be interesting to see what  will happen to prices. Even though the number of listings are down 10% so far this year, April saw the same number of new listings as April last year.

Our area is definitely doing better than the Lower Mainland where their activity continues to be sluggish in most Greater Vancouver markets. Our lower prices, continuing record low interest rates and the strength of the prairie markets has a positive impact for real estate sales in our area.
Also, as the sunbelt areas of the US continue to strengthen with monthly price increases, many buyers for second homes are looking to the Okanagan once again.