Some of our first articles this year were about our very reserved optimism for a recovery this year. As usual, many opinions abound with regards to record breaking real estate sales, a solid recovery year, a return to multiple offers around the valley and everybody will be happy again!

I hope I can bring some perspective from my beliefs.

First of all take a look around at what is happening in other sectors of our economy, perhaps the stock market for one. For the past three or four weeks we have seen the stock market go up and down more times than an elevator in a shopping mall. As soon as it is up, the media espouses tremendous gains and a sign that the economy is on track and it is going to be a phenomenal year only to see the gains be eroded the following day. We have seen oil rise to levels not seen for quite some time only to be pulled back to a level that is more in line with the global economy.

Once again we see descriptors of the gains and declines such as “Canadian dollar roars to new heights” or “Canadian dollar tumbles again by two cents!!!” If you take a look at the history of the Canadian dollar it has largely hovered between $0.90c and $0.97c US for almost a year now... no tumbles and no meteoric rises. The challenge is still the descriptors that are used in reporting gains and declines magnify every time the story is told. Think of the game Chinese whispers. If you have not played it before, try it next time you are at dinner with the family, someone at one end of the table create a sentence and whisper it to the person next to them and the sentence is repeated until it comes back to the creator, usually quite different. Imagine then that a news release is issued that says BC Housing recovery is posting solid gains... by the time it gets around the world it is magnified considerably. The challenge then is what people find is not what they believe has been reported.

Let's face the truth, we still have a lot of damage control to do in the financial markets. The average homeowner is still mired by high debt levels and our economy has fundamental strength that many world economies did not have before the financial challenges of the past few years. It is going to be a long haul, not a short recovery but the good news is that the Okanagan did not experience a radical erosion of values the way other markets did and so we will not see and should not expect to see a meteoric rise. We are closer to a more balanced market than we have been for the past few years and it is a market that still favours a patient Buyer. It is a market with good selection, a variety of values and locations and a market that still offers considerable upside to the purchaser or investor if they are patient.

Many real estate professionals are busier today than they were a year ago but records (real records) are not being broken, the market is still recovering and I would expect that to continue for the rest of this year and a good portion of 2011 as we see inventory levels diminish and a return of new development companies to satisfy the needs of the consumers in the market at that point in time.

Enjoy the summer and for an overview of factual statistics regarding the market, visit Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board