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Okanagan-Shuswap housing market still hot, not ‘boiling’ anymore: Realtors

The Association of Interior Realtors says it’s still a seller’s market, prices remain high
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“For Sale” and “Sold” signs are shown outside a new home in Beckwith, Ont., on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The real estate market in much of the B.C. Interior remains hot for sellers after several record-setting months.

Residential sales in June between Revelstoke and Manning Park, as well as to the north in the South Peace River region decreased to 1,381 from May’s 1,482. However, that’s still 32 per cent higher than the pandemic-affected numbers of last June.

“The market is still very much a hot market, maybe just not boiling hot anymore,” said Association of Interior Realtors president Kim Heizmann.

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Active listings increased in June to 3,126 from May’s 2,554. That’s 46 per cent less than was on the market in June 2020.

Heizmann said this could be caused by COVID-based anxieties around selling homes and the number of houses available may increase as more people get vaccinated and restrictions continue to ease.

In the Central Okanagan, North Okanagan and Shuswap/Revelstoke areas, home prices remain substantially higher than last year, with benchmark single-family homes in each region selling for more than 30 per cent higher than they did last year. The highest prices belong to the Central Okanagan, where a single-family home will set buyers back around $915,100.

For the South Okanagan, where benchmark pricing is unavailable, average prices were up more than 20 per cent for single-family homes for almost $750,000. The price of condos and apartments in the region has exploded in the past year, increasing more than 50 per cent to an average price of over $456,000.


@michaelrdrguez
michael.rodriguez@kelownacapnews.com

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