Home sales continue to decline in many parts of the Okanagan

For the fifth month in a row, home sales have declined throughout much of the Okanagan.

“The number of units sold has dropped month over month for the past five months. That is something we have not seen for some time,” Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB) president Marv Beer said. “We are coming off a very hot market.”

What was a seller’s market is now moving towards a more balanced one as house sales level off, with the central Okanagan seeing the biggest impact.

According to OMREB, this past July saw 201 single-detached homes sell in the central Okanagan compared to 282 in July 2017, a drop of nearly 30 per cent.

“A year ago, we had people fighting over houses,” Beer said. “It’s been very busy and I think it’s been frustrating for buyers because everything they look at that they want to see already has an offer on it, and that is one of the symptoms of a very hot market.”

Unlike home sales, prices have not dropped. In fact, the price of an average home is up.

According to OMREB, the average price of a single family home this past July was $782,398 compared to $692,838 in July 2017, a jump of nearly 13 per cent.

Real estate agents that Global News spoke with said they are surprised the statistics show home sales rising substantially. They said they feel high-end homes are skewing the numbers and that the price of more average homes is holding steady.

But if the trend of declining home sales continues, prices may follow suit.

“If things continue to slow down, certainly there will be a shift towards lower pricing,” Kelowna realtor Jaime Briggs said.

Briggs said while some sellers are adjusting to the market shift, not all are there just yet.

“We are trying to make sure our clients are very realistic to what is happening and a lot of our clients are realizing the market has shifted,” Briggs said. “Some are still holding to ‘yester-year’ prices, so it just takes a while to get them to realize that homes are not selling as quickly.”

But the slowdown isn’t necessarily bad news.

“Moving into a more balanced market, we have a situation where buyers will have more supply to choose from and they are not going to have to jump on something just because that’s the only one available,” Beer said. “Now they’ll have a little more selection.”

As for what’s causing homes sales to decline, realtors believe it’s a combination of factors including tighter mortgage rules, higher interest rates and the proposed speculation tax.

For more statistic from the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board, click here.