March was Marching Right Along.

 Well, what a week and month it has been. It feels like we are starting April off just like last year with restaurant dine-in stopping for a while,but I do not want to go down that path with this email so let’s look at the positives of the past year. One of the main things that I have noticed is the amount of time families are spending together.We see it in our neighborhood every day. Families out for a bike ride, a walk or skating on Green Bay when it froze over this winter. It’s nice to see kids having some quality time with their parents. With the changes to the restaurant business this week hopefully everyone can help those businesses survive by doing a few more takeout dinners over the next 3 to 4 weeks. We all want those businesses to be open again. 

What has the real estate market been up to over the last 31 days? The market is continuing to be fueled by people moving to our community and first-time buyers entering the market. Every sector of our real estate market is up again this month except for days-on-market which are down by 47% to 33 days on average. The average price of a single-family home has increased to $967,452 this is a 34.74% increase from just a year ago. One of the most amazing stats to me is the number of homes priced over a million dollars selling this year compared to last March. We had 232 homes over a million dollars sell this month compared to 42 just a year ago.This is part of the reason that the average house price has increased as much as it has. 

Looking to buy or sell please give me a call.

Hope you all had a great Easter Weekend.

How's the Market you Ask?

The ski hills are busy and winter may not be officially over but the temperatures are rising and the sun is shining! Walking trails are also busy and bicycle riders are getting the cobwebs off their bikes as we speak.

I don’t want to jinx this trend but the weather reports are telling us warmer weather is on the way. With being cooped up all winter and no ability to travel for many, we see a continued surge in real estate activity.

If you thought recent numbers were high, take a look at these:

Total sales for February rose by 137% from last year rising from 315 sales to 749. The time it takes to sell a home has dropped to almost half the time from last year as prices continue
to rise.

By-the-way, listings also rose a good amount (905 properties or 16%) in February and for the first time in a while we had more new listings than sales.
The average and median prices are up by 23% and 24% year over year but don’t be fooled by this. The Home Price Index (HPI) is a much better gauge of where prices are going. The
HPI tells us what a home would sell for this year compared to the same home selling a year ago.

This is better than an average or a median price because those comparisons do not account for changes in volume in different price ranges.
For example, in Glenmore, January ’20 to January ’21 the HPI index had a rise of 16% whereas the average rose by 23%. If you care how the price of your own home has
changed in one year, the HPI makes much more sense to use. 

Out-of-town buyers continue to flock to our valley. Recent economic news indicates the Kelowna area will continue to show strong population growth in the decades ahead as
people make lifestyle decisions about where they want to live. Kelowna seems to be high on the list of places to move to in Canada for those now working from home.

Happy March everyone. It will be nice to spread out a bit outdoors so enjoy and be safe!