March 7, 2023
1. Areas covered by the Association of Interior REALTORS® Market Statistics include: Central/North Okanagan, Shuswap/ Revelstoke, South Okanagan/ South Peace River
Continue reading →If you’re like many prospective homebuyers, you’ve been taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to real estate – but don’t wait too long. Once market prices stabilize, buyers who’ve been sitting on the sidelines will return and market competition will accelerate yet again, perhaps even as early as this fall.
“Canada’s real estate market is returning to a steadier pace after an unprecedented growth period. While some buyers are continuing to monitor the market and the Bank of Canada’s interest rates, this provides an opportunity for eager buyers to negotiate deal terms and price on properties, unlike recent years,” says Anthony Hitt, president and CEO, Engel & Völkers Americas.
Continue reading →A lack of supply and high demand will continue to drive prices higher, chartered professional accountants say, in calling for a coordinated push to build more homes
Lori Mathison
After more than a year of record-breaking real estate activity, recent data reflects a downturn in the housing market across Canada. This decline has been driven by significant interest rate increases implemented by the Bank of Canada to combat inflationary pressures, with the overnight rate rising to 2.5 per cent as of July 13 from 0.25 per cent at the start of the year.
While housing prices may have cooled in recent months, they remain historically high and unaffordable for many. In June 2022, the average B.C. house sold for $947,216, up 4.1 per cent compared to June 2021 and 27.1 per cent from June 2020. The Lower Mainland had the highest prices, with the average price of a single-family home hitting $1.86 million in June 2022 compared to $1.28 million in June 2020.
Longer-term, it is anticipated that any decline in housing prices will be modest in B.C., and a lack of supply and high demand will push prices up again. From 2010 to 2021, about 356,000 housing units were completed in B.C. while the province’s population increased by over 800,000. Population growth slowed during the pandemic, however, it has rebounded and the federal government is looking to boost immigration past pre-pandemic levels.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) recently released a report highlighting the significant supply gap expected over the next decade. To make housing affordable in B.C. by 2030, the CMHC forecasts the average price of a home in B.C. would need to decline to $679,000 compared to the average of $947,216 in June 2022 (though significant regional discrepancies exist). To achieve this, the report finds B.C. would need another 570,000 housing units over and above the approximately 423,000 new units expected from 2022 to 2030. Without a significant increase in housing investment this will not happen, and all levels of government have a role to play from a policy perspective.
To that end, CPABC recently hosted a roundtable with Minister David Eby, at that time Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing, and CPAs from public practice, not-for-profit, development, and finance sectors to discuss housing affordability.
The discussion highlighted the need for greater coordination between levels of government and better defined processes. In particular, the provincial government can play a leadership role in ensuring the right projects get shovels in the ground as efficiently as possible.
Kelowna, and with it the Central Okanagan, has the fastest-growing population in Canada, posting a 14 per cent increase from 2021 to 2026, according to Statistics Canada.
With 224,000 people, the city of Kelowna has twice the population of Nanaimo, Kamloops or Prince George as the second-largest B.C. city outside of the Lower Mainland.
The broader Thompson-Okanagan region is currently growing at about 1.6 per cent per year, hitting 620,000 in 2021 and adding roughly 10,000 new residents annually.
Judging by real estate development being launched this spring the regional population will continue to accelerate, providing the current residential downturn proves shallow and brief. It is housing, after all, that is driving the real estate market across the Okanagan, but residential sales have slowed recently.
Continue reading →
The red-hot housing market over the last several months pushed many buyers fighting through bidding wars to put in unconditional offers at high prices.
But now that the market is cooling, some are ending up with mortgages that can’t cover the full cost of their home following an appraisal.
Toronto-based mortgage broker Mary Sialtsis says there are “very few options” for these buyers.
Continue reading →
Local Real Estate Market Still Hot Sellers Market
Residential real estate sales across the region from Revelstoke to Eastgate Manning Park and into the South Peace River region still hot sellers market after record setting months, reports the Association of Interior REALTORS®.
Residential sales for the month of June for the entire Association region totalled 1,381, down from May’s 1,482 sales. The same area also saw a 32% increase in year-over-year comparisons, however that is still in comparison to the restrictive months of the pandemic.
“The market is still very much a hot market, maybe just not boiling hot anymore,” says the Association of Interior REALTORS® President Kim Heizmann, adding that “like the weather this past week, it went from 40 plus degrees to a more comfortably warm 30 something degrees, which is still warm by all accounts.”
The supply of active residential listings increased from May’s 2,554 to 3,126 current listings across the Association region yet dropped 46% compared to June 2020.
Maclean’s calculated which cities and towns offer the best quality of life in Canada
Jennifer Broadwell and her family were ready to say goodbye to San Antonio. After living with the city’s traffic, stress and limited green space for years, they wanted to trade it for a small town that instead offered access to mountains, lakes and safe streets where the children could play. As her husband finished up studies to become an orthodontist, a colleague who had settled in Alberta urged them to look north of the border.
Alberta, however, had a major drawback: it’s cold. Next, they investigated the B.C. Interior: getting closer. Finally, they received an email alert for an orthodontic practice for sale in a small British Columbian town with a funny name: Salmon Arm.
Buying a home in Canada can be a challenge, especially in major cities where average Canadians with modest earnings are almost entirely priced out of the real estate market. Affording a home can be especially tough for single millennials, who can’t rely on the power of two incomes to qualify for a mortgage.
But if you’ve ever considered escaping the metropolitan rat race in search of a calmer, more affordable place, you’ll do no better than settling in Salmon Arm, B.C.. It’s a town of 18,000 east of Kamloops, and it also took the no. 6 spot in our overall ranking.
