When it comes to buying a home in the Okanagan, price is usually the bottom line.
And, for years, Kelowna has had the Valley’s most expensive home prices. But it seems there’s a new king of the home-price hill in the Okanagan, according to a new, tightly focused survey.
A nationwide study done by Century 21 Canada says per square foot, Vernon has higher costs than Kelowna. It says Vernon’s price per square foot (PPFS) for a detached house in 2018 is $366, while Kelowna’s is $300.
Data collected from Century 21 Canada’s survey was taken between January and June.
No explanation was given why despite Kelowna generally having higher house prices than Vernon.
While those may seem pricey, they pale in comparison to Vancouver’s West End, which has a detached house PPFS of $1,147 – tops in the nation. Other notable PPFS prices for detached homes in B.C. are Burnaby at $599, Victoria at $509, Chilliwack at $297, Fort St. John at $171 and Prince George at $155. No prices were given for Penticton.
For townhouse PPFS prices in the Okanagan, Vernon still bested Kelowna. Vernon was listed at $318 while Kelowna’s price was $300.
Results from the survey can be found here.
Elsewhere, Century 21 Canada said its survey of price per square foot found that condos in downtown Vancouver are the most expensive properties in the nation at $1,345 per square foot. Overall, Vancouver houses came in at $856 PPSF, down from $890 last year, due to lower prices on the Eastside. The data collected was taken from January 1st to June 30th, 2018.
“It is no surprise that Vancouver’s downtown and Westside once again topped the list of Canada’s most expensive properties per square foot, even with a small decline over the last year,” said Brian Rushton, executive vice-president of Century 21 Canada. “Looking across B.C. the price variation is remarkable. Going out just one or two suburbs cuts your price in half, while prices in more rural areas are closer to a quarter or less of those in Vancouver.
“We are hearing anecdotally from agents in the Fraser Valley and in communities like Victoria that they are seeing an increase in the number of Vancouver residents moving to take advantage of lower house pricing, which the surge in prices in Chilliwack and elsewhere would seem to support.”
According to Century 21 Canada, going back 20 years, most Metro Vancouver prices have tripled or quadrupled – to $681 PPSF this year from $192 in 1998 in North Vancouver, for example.
Earlier this year, Century 21 Canada said it commissioned a survey of 1,000 Canadians in several larger cities about how close their current living situation is to their ideal. The full results of this survey can be found here.
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