Where are Kelowna buyers coming from?

Let’s get right to the stats part of this update and get it over with quickly.  Spoiler alert….same old, same old.  1,620 residential homes for sale right now and 2,155 homes sold this year.  Works out to just over 6 months’ supply of homes making it a balanced market.  Overpriced homes aren’t selling, high-end homes take significantly longer to sell than affordably priced ones and we don’t have to deal with too many multiple offers in any price range.   These are normal times with few foreclosures and we don’t have to deal with buyers being talked out of buying a home by ultra-cautious relatives certain the housing market will fall off the cliff.  Our teachers negotiated a settlement this week which means everyone will be in their normal routine again and our second largest employer will be printing pay cheques again.  Amen.  No stats on this and regardless of which side you were on, the teachers’ strike had a negative impact on our economy.

Last month 25% of home buyers on our board area were move up buyers and 17% were first timers.  These two groups are critical in any housing market, especially ours.  Interestingly, 13.7% of the buyers moved from single family dwellings to stratas while only 4% moved from strata to single family.  I thought that number would have been the reverse.  Condo buyers are stereotypically first time or last time buyers (yes, I know there are a zillion exceptions) but I’m surprised to read that over 3 times more are downsizing that upsizing.    Perhaps this is because single family prices are increasing at a faster rate than condo prices making it even tougher to buy a house with a yard. 

50% of homes bought last month were from buyers within the Okanagan.  People from Winfield buying in Peachland or a family moving from Glenmore to Kettle Valley.  No surprises here. 

23% are from Alberta.  Thanks Alberta….glad you like our town so much.  Don’t know what we’d do without you.

0.7% from the Yukon.  We should find out who this family is, invite ourselves over and throw a party.  They’d probably do that for us if we moved to Whitehorse.

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading and be careful driving through school zones again.

 

To view Kelowna homes for sale go to http://www.OkanaganBC.com or call Andrew Smith directly at 250-979-8066.

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Over 22 years experience helping people achieve their dream of home ownership!

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.