Kelowna, Kamloops among few Canadian cities with homes under $200,000
There was a time when it was not unusual to find a nice single-family house in Kelowna or Kamloops in the $200,000 range.
Now, those same houses are worth up to $1 million and virtually nothing is available of any sort for less than $200,000.
Only 15 of Canada’s biggest 50 cities have any homes at all for sale under $200,000, according to a report released today, June 8, by Point2, a national firm that analyses real estate trends.
While that’s up from 12 cities last year, the pickings are pretty slim. In Toronto, for example, there are only two.
Kelowna makes the list at number 11 with 0.24% of listings for homes being less than $200,000.
But, like Toronto, there are only two of those listed on Realtor.ca. Both are manufactured homes in parks.
One is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,080 square foot unit built in 1974 on Findlay Road for $179,900.
The other is 1,237 square feet with two bedrooms and two bathrooms built in 1976. It's listed for $199,000.
It’s in the Central Park Mobile Home Park that was sold to a Kerkhoff Construction in 2021.
That’s the same developer that built Kelowna’s tallest skyscraper, One Water Street, along with other projects in the city so the time is ticking on Central Park and moving a manufactured home that old is near impossible.
READ MORE: With demise of mobile home parks in Kelowna, affordable home ownership slips away for many
Kamloops is not included on the list as one of the 50 most populous cities in the country. It has 16 manufactured homes listed for less than $200,000. Penticton has nine, West Kelowna has eight and Vernon has seven.
Vernon is the only city of the five to also have a half-dozen condos listing for less than $200,000. Those include two at 3022 Gateby Place for $155,000 to $159,500. Both have one bedroom and one bathroom and are less than 600 square feet.
Of the 50 biggest cities, residents of Waterloo have the best shot at housing affordability with 3.13% of those listings being for less than $200,000. Kawartha Lakes, east of Barrie ON, comes in second at 2.62%.
Maple Ridge tops the list for BC and is number three overall with .77% of its listings being less than $200,000. Eight of the 50 largest cities on the list that have any homes in this price range are in BC.
In order to find that kind of affordable housing, it means moving to smaller markets in the Maritimes or on the Prairies.
Cape Breton, NS, has 44.5% of its listings at less than $200,000. The number is 36.6% in Saint John and 11.4% in St. John’s.
In Regina, 28.8% of listings are for less than $200,000 while it’s 20% in Winnipeg and 18.6% in Edmonton.
READ MORE: Want a good deal on a house in the Thompson-Okanagan? Try Clinton or Keremeos
Moving to small communities in the Okanagan is no solution.
Keremeos, Enderby and Lumby have the lowest average assessed housing values in the region but, between them all, there are no listings on Realtor.ca for less than $200,000.
See the full Point2 report here.
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