Housing sales pick up after winter lull

In anticipation of spring, Kelowna’s housing market has started to heat up.

After a lull during the holiday season and January, buyers sprung into action in February.

“Clearly, market activity is picking up, which is typical for February,” said Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board president Anthony Bastiaanssen while releasing figures for last month this week.

In February, 367 homes of all kinds (single-family, duplexes, townhouses and condominiums) changed hands, up from the 238 sales in January.

The average selling price of a single-family home in February also set another record at $638,604, beating the previous peak of $625,000 last summer.

Average selling prices for townhouses and condos are also on the rise, with February settings of $421,425 and $333,312, respectively.

A big reason for the rising prices is there aren’t a lot of homes for sale in Kelowna at any one time. In February, there were 1,040 listings in the city. That sounds like a lot, but when you consider 367 homes sold, that means more than a third of the homes for sale were snapped up.

It’s the age-old story of supply and demand determining price.

“While the inventory of available properties for sale increased over January, we are still 30 per cent lower than a year ago,” said Bastiaanssen.

“If demand continues at current rates, we will continue to experience competition for available properties, multiple-offer situations and sales prices that are higher than asking price.”

The scenario means a home is on the market an average of 62 days before it sells, down from 65 in January and 77 in January of 2016.

“These conditions shorten the decision-making time frame and complicate the situation, which adds stress,” said Bastiaanssen.

Fifty-five per cent of buyers in the Central Okanagan are from the local area. Buyers from elsewhere in B.C. represent 21 per cent of the market, Albertans 12 per cent and foreign buyers just two per cent.

Twenty-six per cent of buyers are two-parent families with children, 24 per cent are couples without kids and 24 per cent are emptynesters.

The biggest buying group, at 22 per cent, is those selling their existing home and buying another similar home.

Close behind, at 21 per cent, are first-time buyers, with downsizers at 17 per cent.

Meantime, new home construction in Kelowna dipped in February due to winter weather.

Last month, construction started on 222 homes of all kinds (single-family, townhouses, apartments and condominiums), a 29 per cent drop from the 311 starts in February 2016.