Okanagan real estate market faring better than Kamloops and rest of B.C.
After a record-setting 2021, it’s only reasonable that the pace of housing sales in B.C. this year can’t match those numbers.
But something a bit strange happened in the Okanagan market last month.
“We experienced something interesting in August – sales went up from July,” realtor Colin Krieg wrote in his monthly Krieg Family Real Estate/ReMax Kelowna newsletter. “This is highly unusual to see an August with higher sales.”
It's also unusual at a time when Kamloops and the rest of B.C. were on a downward trend in terms of sales.
In August, sales in B.C. totaled 5,645, a 1.2% drop from July and a 40.8% decline from 2021, according to a monthly update by the B.C. Real Estate Association.
Kamloops sales were down to 187 units, a 7.8% decline from July and a 36.4% drop from August 2021.
While sales in the Okanagan were down 32.2% from last year, they were actually up 11.1% from July, totalling 671 sales.
When it comes to prices, only the South Peace showed a year over year decline out of 11 regions in the B.C. Real Estate Association data report.
But when comparing to July, B.C. as a whole and Kamloops saw a drop in prices while the Okanagan went in the opposite direction.
The average price for all housing types in B.C. dropped 0.5% to $918,378 in August from July. The fall was more dramatic in Kamloops where the $580,128 average price was 12% lower than in July.
In the Okanagan, the average price throughout the region climbed 3.1% to $775,967.
READ MORE: Home prices dropping in Kamloops but rising in parts of the Okanagan
Krieg attributes the higher sales volume to the shock wearing off from the 1% increase in the Bank of Canada rate in July.
“Not to worry, the Bank of Canada announced another massive 0.75% interest rate hike in September to shock the market again,” he wrote. “It's too soon to say what kind of impact that will have, but I expect September sales to taper again.”
In a video attached to his news release, Krieg says he doesn’t expect any real upward pressure on prices for the next two years.
“We just finished our 10-year cycle – or our boom,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a little while before we get back there.”
He sees a dip in high end sales but lower end sellers will be “just fine.”
READ MORE: You can still sell your home in a tough Kelowna real estate market if it’s priced right
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