The weekly sales jumped back up over 100 for the first time in a month. With the snow sellers and buyers are appearing to be serious right now.
According to the Home Price Index in the last three years, the average price for homes in the Okanagan has increased by 46 percent. For you, the homeowners that means 46 percent more equity in your home in the last three years.
That number is significant for people looking to pull out equity in their homes to do home renovations but is somewhat irrelevant for people looking to buy within the same market. As home prices have changed, the volume of active listings on the market has also changed. Despite having record-low inventory in the last few years, the dollar volume of listing naturally has changed as well.
The chart above shows the seasonal peaks and valleys, of the active listing values and highlights, with a large change in the last couple of years. When comparing this with the number of active listings in the chart below, the average listing asked price for the Central Okanagan has gone from $538,225, to where it is today, at $1,324,992. These are active listings and not ones that have sold. Over the last 10 years, the two graphs show a familiar correlation between the amount of active listings and the total dollar volume, most recently, however, there has been a shift. At the end of October, there were 2317 active listings and the data can often be skewed with the higher-end properties on the market. Currently 265 homes are for sale listed over $2 Million. These listings right now are accounting for one third of the dollar volume currently, while only accounting for 8 percent of the overall listing inventory.
Right now for listings under $2M, there are 2,043 active listings and just over $1.9 Billion worth of active listings. Overall inventory, as you can see from the chart below, is still below the most recent peak in 2018 and even 2012 but not by a huge amount by any means.
In 2022 so far there has been 4,398 sales under $2M and 192 sales above $2M. Using comparisons to 10 years ago there was 3,712 sold under $2m and only 20 sales over $2M. Inflation aside, there has been a large increase in high-end market activity which is currently the hottest it has ever been. Right now, the high end market does not appear to be affected at all by the interest rate increases. Looking at the mid-to low-end market there is still a decent amount of activity very similar to the 2018/2019 years, which is still a very healthy market just a bit more affected by the rate increases, which makes sense. Have a great week this week!
Mark