Market still hot but showing signs of balance, Association of Interior Realtors says

While demand for Kamloops homes is still high, the vice president of the Association of Interior Realtors says the frenzied real estate market is showing signs of calming down.

Chelsea Mann said more homes are hitting the market, with the association’s statistics showing 96 per cent more overall active listings now than in April 2021.

“In the last couple months, we've had new listings over 500 per month, and we haven't seen that since the beginning of the pandemic. So this past month, we've finally hit over 1,000 active listings,” Mann said.

"We’re still quite shy of balance in the listings department, but we're heading in the right direction. To see real balance, we would probably normally be at about 2,000 active listings, but we're still a far cry from how low we had seen it get in the past months.”

According to the Association of Interior Realtors, last month saw 246 residential sales in Kamloops, down from 326 sales in March. The sales numbers have decreased by nearly 40 per cent when compared to this time last year.

Mann said these sales numbers are more consistent with what the city would typically see in April.

“We're kind of falling back in a seasonal norm. So it's not meaning that we’re going downhill or anything like that. It's just kind of coming back to a seasonal average for our sales numbers, which is a good thing, in my opinion,” she said.

“Anything that's a little bit more balanced is just better for everyone.”

Mann said although demand for Kamloops area homes is still high, she’s starting to see it ease, even though some properties are still attracting multiple bids.

“We are actually being able to negotiate on a few deals here, which I feel so excited to be able to do, we haven't been able to do that for a long time,” Mann said.

She said she has seen buyers get cold feet if there is “immediate fever on a listing.”

”People are picking apart those higher priced listings a little bit more because there's a few more to choose from, which is just better for everyone. It just gives people options,” Mann said.

Mann noted prices have not fallen, but she isn’t seeing them increase as steeply as in past months. She said she anticipates purchase prices will be the last factor to respond to any shift in the market.

She said demand is still high, and inventory is still lower than it should be for a truly balanced market, but a positive shift continues.

“Being able to negotiate on some deals and having your clients feel like we got to actually say that there was something wrong in the home inspection, we got to do a home inspection, we had some time to breathe, that’s been really good,” Mann said.

“That feeling of stress and anxiety is the last thing that we want our clients on either end of the transaction to be feeling. This just lends us a little bit better into doing our jobs as we regularly would, and really supporting our clients through and being able to do the due diligence that is needed.”