The Kelowna and Central Okanagan Valley real estate market experienced another solid month of sales and new listings in what continues to be relatively balanced market overall. As usual for our market in June, sales were less than they were last month, nonetheless, we saw 451 residential sales recorded. This figure is also again down only slightly from last year as well but to a much lesser extent then the first 4 months of the year. Now halfway through the year, we’ve seen a total of 2183 sales compared to the 2540 sales in the first half of 2018. While this equates to 14% fewer sales year-to-date compared to last, I still describe this as a solid month because of how it compares to recent history; down only 6% from the 10-year average and having outperformed the 5-year period from 2009-2013.
The number of homes being listed for sale was good with 504 new residential listings last month but the spring listing rush appears to have come and gone. This figure was up just 1.86% from last month. We may very well have seen the peak for inventory this year which wouldn’t be a bad thing given the market is still experiencing an inventory level that is up 11.33% from last year’s August peak. When looking at inventory level compared to current sales we see that the Kelowna real estate market is currently holding 6.43 months of inventory. This is a testament to our continued balanced market. Although months of inventory is up from last June as is verging on buyer’s market territory, suggesting that we could be headed towards a slight buyer’s market earlier this fall than we saw in 2018.
Central Okanagan Avg. Selling Price for Past 12 Months by Market Segment
The average valuation of residential properties remained flat month over month and is down just 5.35% from June 2018. It also remains on par with 2017’s high of $573,612 last in October of that year. For everyone that thinks their property value has plummeted - it has not! The market data has consistently been telling us all year that it’s down but only marginally. What has changed though is that sellers are no longer able to push values upwards. Gone (for now) are the days of sellers asking $50,000 more than they would have the month previous and still having a chance at experiencing multiple offers within days on the market. Speaking of the speed at which the market is moving, days on market continued to drop with the average time to sell at 57 days, which is quite a bit longer than the 45 days at this time last year.
I pride myself on having an intimate knowledge of what’s going on in the Kelowna real estate market and includes Peachland, West Kelowna, and Lake Country too. That’s why I launched The Pulse instead of sending off a “cookie cutter” report created by my brokerage for any agent to use. In the last issue I started talking about the two divergent sub-markets we’ve seen develop in our little valley in response to the affordability challenge. This month, I want to look at those again but instead of from the perspective of number of sales and selling price, I want to take you deeper and explore the neighbourhoods at the forefront and how they are behaving differently.
Let’s start with the under $600,000 price category. Lately this price category makes up 30-40% of the residential single family detached home market. This past month 39.62% of all homes sold in Kelowna and the Central Okanagan. Out of all the neighbourhoods that make up the City and the region there are 2 very prominent neighbourhoods in the under $600,000 price category: Rutland with 27.38% of the sales in this price category and Glenrosa in West Kelowna with 19.05% of the sales in this price category. Downtown Westbank and Glenmore are the next two with the most sales. In Rutland 75% of homes sold for less than $600,000 and in Glenrosa 85% of homes sold for less than $600,000. Last month the homes in this price category sold after just 47 days on the market or 17.5% faster than the average. In Glenrosa, days on the market was down to 39.5! The average sale price for these homes in Rutland was $520,033 and in Glenrosa it was $505,919. Both neighbourhoods are extremely hot right now with inventory levels sitting at 3.0 MOI and 1.42 MOI, respectively. While sellers definitely have an advantage, buyers have been seeing a consistent high level of inventory coming up for sale and have still been able to negotiate modest price discounts in many of the transactions.
Now for the over $900,000 price category. This price category stretches across a wide variety of properties from traditional family homes in popular neighbourhoods to large East Kelowna estates and lakeshore, waterfront custom homes. Last month it made up only 15% of the residential single family detached home sales; however, it is an important category to talk about as it currently makes up 42.44% of listings. Unlike the under $600,000 category, homes in this price category are spread out more throughout the City. Last month the homes in this price category sold after 69 days on the market, taking 21% longer than the average. The Upper Mission and Kettle Valley are two popular neighbourhoods with frequent sales in this category and last month Glenmore stood out as well. The Upper Mission made up 16.67% of sales in this price category with another 10% going to Kettley Valley. Glenmore was up there with 13.33% of sales over the $900,000. The average sale price for these homes in Upper Mission was $1.145 Million and $885,648 across all price categories in the neighbourhood, in Kettle Valley was $1.179 for these homes and $968,417 across all price categories in the neighbourhood, and Glenmore was $1.131 for these homes and $777,422 across all price categories in the neighbourhood. All of these neighbourhoods are seeing a majority of sales in lower price categories and a there is a disproportionate number of sales to listing in the over $900,000 price category leading to the slower speed of this market. Interesting, sales in this price category in the Upper Mission neighbourhood sold on average in just 42 days on the market, faster than the under $600,000 price category in Rutland and 26% faster than the average. At the end of the day, there are buyers out there even for homes priced upwards of the one-million-mark; the important part is that the offering represents value.
All data is from OMREB/MLS® System. Interpretations of the data is done with the utmost care and attention, however, errors and omissions may apply. Selling and purchasing real estate comes with risk and should be discussed in depth with your real estate agent of choice.