Photo: The Canadian Press

The supply of homes in the Okanagan is still struggling to meet demand, which is a big reason why the housing market continues to be red hot.

Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board released its November statistics on Wednesday, and the number of sales across the region was up 71% when compared to November 2019.

OMREB, which covers the area between Peachland and Revelstoke, had 15% fewer sales in November than in October, but the numbers are still high thanks to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We continue to see high residential housing demand despite a mild seasonal slowdown generally seen during this time of year,” OMREB President Kim Heizmann said in a press release. “It’s typical for market conditions to cool as the weather cools, yet that, much like everything else this year, hasn’t happened.

“Looking at the numbers we can see that consumer demand is not being met due to record low listings, which creates upward pressure on pricing. Essentially, the demand is so high that it is difficult for inventory to build up.”

Last month’s inventory was down 19% compared to October and 30% lower than it was in November 2019.

The benchmark price of a single-family home in the Central Okanagan increased more than 10% to $728,900, while the North Okanagan mark jumped 11.1% to 529,000.

Townhouse and condominium prices also surged in Central and North Okanagan last month, but the increases weren’t as high as they were for single-family abodes.

Photo: Contributed