Kamloops real estate sales on down trend, prices keep heading up
Real estate prices keep going up, but the amount of listings sold in the Kamloops market are well below the peak last spring.
The average Kamloops area home last month was $665,000, topping the December average by $15,000, according to stats released from the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association.
"The demand for homes also remained high, and our inventory shrunk to record lows. Just like other regions in the province, our falling inventory led to a sharp rise in average prices in the last 12 months," association president Chelsea Mann said in a news release.
Just 185 listings were sold in January which is a slight increase from December's 166. Despite the bump in listings sold, the Kamloops area market peaked at 405 sold listings in April 2021 followed by a downward trend into the new year.
READ MORE: Southern Interior sees 40 per cent fewer homes for sale in January
“As inventory levels have been trending lower month-on-month, the entire province has been struggling to manage the high demand for real estate. We got a surplus of new listings over sales for a few months, but that hasn’t been sufficient enough to bridge that gap that was left by the post-pandemic hot-market," Mann said.
Kamloops area real estate statistics include nearby communities like Logan Lake, Chase, Barriere and even Merritt. Prices are lower in the smaller communities, especially Logan Lake, which drops the average selling price as a whole.
There were 146 sales in the city of Kamloops out of the 185, where the average price was $676,400.
When broken down by home type, the benchmark price for two storey homes tops the list at $808,000, 26% more than the same time last year.
READ MORE: 10 to 30 per cent of homes in Kamloops, Okanagan are owned by investors
A Kamloops apartment unit would cost a buyer $367,000 at the benchmark price last month, which is nearly 23% more than the same time last year.
"I believe that upcoming government policies and higher interest rates will play a role in the way the market behaves in the days to come," Mann said.
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