What’s driving ever-increasing home prices?

• Prices taking a toll on buyers
• Lack of supply creates ‘fatiguing’ competition among buyers
• Price increase well over 30 per cent since Feb. 2021

The local housing market continues its relentless climb and demand remains strong heading into the spring.

Year-over-year price increases across all property types remain well over 30 per cent with single family homes approaching a 40 per cent hike since February last year.

In their monthly report for February, the Association of Interior REALTORS® said there is still a lack of inventory throughout the Okanagan.

The monthly increase for the benchmark price of a single-family home went up 5.4 per cent from last month, costing $56,500 more than the start of the year.

New listings coming onto market saw a decrease of 12 per cent in the region with 1,850 new listings, with overall active listings being far lower compared to February 2021, showing a 19 per cent decrease in year-over-year comparisons.

“The persistent lack of new listings coming onto market is far from adequate to meet the demand,” said President Kim Heizmann, adding this is “taking a toll on buyers as they show signs of fatigue in having to compete in a seller’s market where lack of supply is putting upward pressure on pricing, and further on affordability.”

Residential unit sales across the entire Association region for February 2022 came in at 1,516, which marked a 15 per cent decrease compared to the record high number of units sold in February last year.

The benchmark price for home across the Central Okanagan, North Okanagan, South Okanagan, and Shuswap/Revelstoke all continued to see large percentage increases in year-over-year comparisons for another consecutive month across all home categories.

The benchmark price for a single-family home in the Central Okanagan region, which includes Kelowna, was $1,094,000 in February, up 37.9 per cent compared to last year.

Townhouses are also up with a benchmark price of $739,400, an increase of 31.2 per cent from February 2021, and the price of a condo/apartment is $550,700, a 35.8 per cent rise on the same month last year.