Home foreclosures in the Okanagan have skyrocketed in the past month.
In Penticton, a 900 square foot townhouse is selling for $115,000, just half of what the owners bought if for in 2008.
Facing foreclosure, the owners actually trashed the home. It is 1 of about 40 homes in the South Okanagan that are for sale by order of the courts.
Real estate agency Raymond Maaske says in the past year, it used to be one or two foreclosures at a time.
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“I get calls probably very week from someone wanting me to find somebody to take over their mortgage,” Maaske said.
A struggling economy is to blame for more people losing their homes in the South Okanagan but in the Kelowna area, the lure of luxury condos has waned as buyers turn to year-round sunshine destinations south of the border.
Buyers from Alberta and the Lower Mainland purchase luxury properties in Kelowna when the market was high in 2008. Now they are taking losses as prices have dropped, some by as much as 20%, which has sent foreclosures rates in the Central Okanagan through the roof.
There are currently 170 court ordered sales in the Kelowna area, which is 10 times the amount three years ago. 60 of them were in the last month alone.
While picking up a deal on a foreclosed luxury condo is a possibility, what you see is not always what you get.
“It is risky for the buyer. It is risky for the agent,” Maaske said.
“The thing that plays into this, especially in B.C., are the grow-ops that are out here,” said real estate agent Elton Ash. “It is buyer beware when it comes to court ordered sales.”
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