Real estate market hammered in Kamloops, Okanagan as prices fall below $1M
For most of the last two years the benchmark sale price for single-family homes in the Central Okanagan – the most expensive in BC’s Interior – have been more than $1 million.
That changed in November when slow sales dropped that price by $34,000 to $991,700. That’s still more than $20,000 higher than the previous lows for this year in January and February.
Housing prices in most categories and most locations fell significantly, according to data released today, Dec. 6, by the Association of Interior Realtors.
The price of a houses was down $20,600 in the North Okanagan to $734,800.
The association did not provide benchmark prices for Kamloops for October but November’s house prices were down $17,300 to $661,200 compared to September.
The bright spot in the market was the South Okanagan where house prices rose by more than $25,000 to $767,100. Townhomes were up by $15,500 and condos by $8,800.
Townhome prices also rose in the Central Okanagan by $17,400, but fell in the North Okanagan by $19,600 and fell in Kamloops by $15,800 compared to September.
Condo prices dropped by $21,100 in the Central Okanagan, $13,500 in the North Okanagan and $12,200 over two months in Kamloops.
“Buyers and sellers are still feeling frustrated and constrained by high mortgage rates,” association president Chelsea Mann said in a news release. “The cost of borrowing is creating a disconnect between what is currently achievable for buyers in terms of what they can afford given the interest rate pinch versus what may be their desired expectations.”
Sales in the association’s region, which stretches through the Kootenays and includes the South Peace, were down 5.9% compared to November 2022.
Listings, which were in short supply through COVID and during the real estate boom that followed, were up 19.9% compared to last November and new listings were up 7%.
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