Home prices trending higher

If you’re trying to buy a home in Kelowna, you may have missed a window of opportunity.

The average residential sale price in Kelowna has spiked over the past several weeks, up 11.2% from the first half of 2020.

Many homebuyers put their plans on hold when COVID-19 locked down the country. Now, pent-up demand is behind an uptick in sales that’s pushing prices sharply higher, a new market analysis from Re/Max suggests.

In Kelowna, the average sale price of a residential detached single-family home in the first quarter of 2020 was $769,380, dipping slightly to $765,217 in Q2. However, the start of Q3 shows a notable jump, with an average sale price of $861,402.

Condos and townhomes, which have been more acutely affected by the pandemic, were down to an average price of $333,451 in Q2, but are now back up to $360,243.

“Despite the tragic impacts of the pandemic, our optimism in the strength of Canada's housing market has always remained, and current market activity further exemplifies this,” said Elton Ash, an executive vice-president for Re/Max in Western Canada.

“Many homebuyers are now exploring different neighbourhoods that better suit their new lifestyles, and real-estate agents are getting busier

and working more with buyers from different major cities.”

In Kelowna, sales in both May and June surpassed year-over-year levels.

Overall, brokers and agents in Western Canada said interested buyers are not too concerned with a potential second wave of COVID-19 affecting their real estate plans.