Kelowna housing prices, sales surge

The average selling price of a singlefamily home in the Central Okanagan last month was almost 13% higher than in December 2019.

Newly-released real estate figures show the local housing market surged in the latter half of 2020 after pandemic-related jitters in the early part of the year.

The benchmark price of a Kelowna-area home last month was $746,00, up 12.% from a year earlier. And a typical listing sold in 59 days, 30% quicker than a year earlier.

“Last year was a very unusual year, after an initial slowdown due to stay-athome orders from the provincial government, we saw a high demand in the real estate market, once orders were lifted, that did not wane even in the typically slower months,” Kim Heizmann, president of the Association of Interior Realtors, said in a Thursday release.

“Despite unusually high demand, inventory of active listings consistently remained low as buyers snapped up homes almost as soon as they were listed,” Heizmann said.

The benchmark price for a Kelownaarea townhouse last month was $504,000, up 8.4% from December 2019. For condos, the benchmark price last month to $399,000, up five percent from a year earlier.

In December, 193 single-family homes in the Kelowna-area were sold, up 64% from the same month in 2019.

A significant run-up in house values since mid-2020 underscores the fact that the valuations shown on B.C. Assessment notices now being received by homeowners likely does not indicate what the property would be worth if it was listed now.

Between July 1, 2019 and July 1, 2020, BC Assessment says, the average singlefamily home in Kelowna rose only 3% in value.