Kelowna Real Estate Market

What's moving our local real estate market?

2012-01-25T06:08:00-08:00

Up to 40% of Kelowna area sales come from non-local buyers.

In the past 16 months Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB) has been collecting information from its members with regards to where buyers are coming from both geographically and demographically. OMREB area covers the Central Okanagan, North Okanagan and Shuswap - from Peachland to Revelstoke.

On average since January 2011 to December 2011, home buyers have been coming from:

within the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board area (56.47%);
Alberta (14.90%);
Lower Mainland/Vancouvers Island (11.13%);
other areas of BC (8.30%);
Saskatchewan/Manitoba (3.09%);
Eastern Canada/Maritimes (3.13%);
outside Canada (2.37%); and
Northwest Territories/Yukon* (0%)

*NWT/Yukon first reported Sept 2011 (0.5%)

On average, during 2011:

move-up buyers accounted for 23.96% of the purchasers;
first-time buyers comprised 20.84%; .and
53.2% of buyer purchases were in Kelowna and West Kelowna!

Here's a graphc look at what buyers are focused on owning in:

Central Okanagan Market Report - December

2012-01-07T06:36:00-08:00

The 2011 real estate market finished on a stronger note than it began. December's residential sales were up over 9% over the same time last year but more importantly the continued early activity into the new year is encouraging.

We are seeing more buyers coming forward showing interest in purchasing real estate. The record low interest rates certainly have something to do with it along with the great selection of properties. Even the mild winter has people thinking about real estate sooner than they normally would but we believe that there truly is a sense of optimism in the air. We have now had four years of a slower real estate market which has created more affordable housing options and selection. People realize that Canada and more specifically our area is experiencing economic growth, as moderate as it may be. Job stability exits and we are now finally starting to see more positive signs coming out of the US that their economy is going to grow.

The Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB) stated in their year end update that "despite concerns about employment, personal debt load and net worth which dampened consumer confidence and slowed overall demand in most BC markets during 2011, OMREB ended the year on a positive note and is moving forward with optimism. A modest improvement is anticipated for 2012 with a slow but steady increase in sale activity, downward trend in listings, and stable home prices for balanced market conditions in our area."

We predict that 2012 as the year we return to a balanced market with few listings coming onto the market and prices showing modest movement upwards. The Alberta economy is on a rebound along with their job growth and it will without a doubt have a positive impact on our area. What this meands is it truly is a great time to invest in our real estate market now.

Million-Dollar-Plus Homes

2012-01-06T06:01:00-08:00

Last year million-dollar-plus home sales accounted for 4.48% of Kelowna home sales and 3.56% in West Kelowna.

Of Kelowna's 53 million-dollar-plus home sales, $5.2 mil was the highest price tag purchase in Kelowna for a 2008 custom built 6,462 sf residence with a 4,000 sf garage, two bedroom guest house, pool, panoramic Okanagan Lake and city views and 9.23 acres in the South East Kelowna neighbourhood.

$4.2 mil was the highest price fetched in West Kelowna's 17 million-dollar-plus home sales. $4.2 mil purchased a 2007 custom built 6,313 residence with a pool on 0.52 acres with dramatic Okanagan Lake views in the Lakeview Heights neighbourhood.

Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB) shows a median sale price of $438,000 for last years 1,204 home sales and $424,000 for West Kelowna's 477.

Over the past ten years 2007 captured the most million-dollar-plus home sales in both Kelowna (61) and West Kelowna (29).

As of today, there are 153 Kelowna and 84 West Kelowna homes listed for million-dollars-plus; 18.56% and 19.7% of the active single family residential listings respectively.

OMREB breaks down Kelowna into 15 neighbourhoods (Black Mountain, Dilworth Mountain, Ellison, Glenmore, Joe Rich, Kelowna North, Kelowna South, Lower Mission, North Glenmore, Rutland North, Ruthland South, South East Kelowna, Springfield/Spall, University District and Upper Mission). Graph below shows the10 that had 2011 million-dollar-plus sales:

West Kelowna is divided into 7 neighbourhoods (Glenrosa, Lakeview Heights, Shannon Lake, Smtih Creek, WestBank Centre, West Kelowna Estates, and Westside Road). Below are the 4 neighbourhoods with pricey home sales in 2011.

Nifty map tool that breaks down Kelowna and West Kelowna neighbhourhoods > click here!

Supply - Demand

2012-01-02T05:07:00-08:00

If no one listed their residential property today, at the current rate of Kelowna and West Kelowna residential* property sales it would take over 16 and 27 months respectively to sell off all the actively listed residential properties shown on Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB).

Here is how we compute months of inventory:

Take the total number of active listings on the market, ie, December 31, 2011,
and the total number of sales for the month, ie, December 2011, and then
divide the number of total listings by the number of total sales, which results in the number of months of inventory remaining.

Now granted, December is typically a month of high inventory and less selling activity in contrast to other months of the year as folks are more focused on the holiday season than buying and selling real estate. However reviewing the past twelve months in 2011:

March was Kelowna's lowest at 10.33 months of inventory and
for West Kelowna June was the lowest inventory level with 12.55 months of inventory.

In the past ten years the lowest and highest month for inventory levels were:

1.75 months of inventory in March 2004 and 2.0 in August 2005 for Kelowna and West Kelowna respectively
25.42 months of inventory in November 2008 and 48.00 in November 2008 for Kelowna and West Kelowna respectively

*Residential includes: lots & acreages, manufactured homes, single family residential, townhomes and apartments

What does this all mean? Well simply, there are more Kelowna area residential properties available for sale than buyers to purchase them. It's perfect buying conditions! Buyers have more property selection to choose from and often, prices are adjusted (down) to meet the demands of the buyers.

Real estate is dynamic. Today Kelowna area inventory levels are high but the trend is, if we look a the past couple of years and follow it into 2012, is that levels lower each month but still 'may' continue to be at the advantage of Buyers.