In the recent months, the real estate market in the Okanagan has been exceptionally strong.
Much is the same for October as the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board released statistics on Tuesday.
“Residential sales for October across the region of Revelstoke to Peachland greatly exceeded October 2019’s sales by 70 per cent,” the board wrote in a release, although the overall number of listings are around 25 per cent lower than last year.
“Seasonally, we normally see the market start to calm down towards the colder winter months. However, that was not the case for October,” said president Kim Heizmann.
“This seems to be a trend across the province as demand for more living space continues to drive consumer incentives.”
Both real estate agents and buyers have told Global News that the attraction to the Okanagan during COVID-19 is about improving the quality of home life while working from home.
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“It’s been really busy the last few months. Things started to heat up and then it continued,” Jesse East, a Realtor with Re/Max in Kelowna, told Global News at the beginning of October.
“They want to be here for lifestyle more than anything, and that’s something we’ve seen for years but has really picked up with COVID-19.”
The real estate board released information on three key areas in the Okanagan comparing last month to the same month last year.
The Central Okanagan saw an increase of 114 per cent in single-family homes sold and an increase of almost 10 per cent regarding benchmark price, which now sits at $728,300.
The North Okanagan saw an increase of 83 per cent in single-family homes sold and an increase of nearly 10 per cent regarding benchmark price, which now sits at $525,300.
The Shuswap-Revelstoke area saw an increase of 20 per cent in single-family homes sold and an increase of nearly 8 per cent in benchmark price, sitting at $474,100.
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