Kamloops real estate market deemed a 'seller's dream' as records break
Kamloops real estate is hot now and for the foreseeable future.
The Kamloops and District Real Estate Association's monthly report shows that the average listing has risen by over $100,000 in Kamloops, and more homes are being sold.
"We're indeed setting sales records in the region and I don't see any downtrend in the months to come," new KADREA president, Chelsea Mann said in the report.
Regionally, the average home price for March 2021 was $545,915, about 29% over last year's $422,673. The region includes Kamloops and smaller communities like Merritt, Barriere, Chase and Logan Lake. The association recorded 372 homes sold for the month, as compared to 220 last year.
While the average home price in Kamloops alone rose from $460,304 in 2020 to now $568,557, the biggest leap was in Chase where the average listing is now $708,636, more than doubling last year's $321,000. However, it should be noted that 11 homes were sold in the Chase area this March, and just five were sold in the same month last year.
A total of 912 homes sold in the Kamloops region in 2021, which outnumbers year-to-date records over the past eight years. The next closest year was 2017 with 600 sold by the end of March.
The upward market trend, which began mid-2020, is attributable partly to more new residents moving to "smaller markets" like Kamloops who are working from home.
"While numbers suggest that buyers of Kamloops real estate are mostly local, we're starting to see a shift in this trend and all property types are selling quite fast," Mann said.
As sales figures remain high, the added note is that a lack of inventory is driving up prices, according to KADREA.
"We've been on track to recovery for the last 10 months and... we've been consistently selling more than we did a year before," Mann said. "The current market is a seller's dream, and our inventory numbers will improve."
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