Quick Market Update...
Taken out of context, it would appear that the Kelowna real estate market is on fire and the smartest thing in the world would have been to buy a home last January.
There were 148 residential single family home sale in Kelowna last month (January 2010) compared to 51 sales January 2009. The average sale price increased from $412,800 in January '09 to $519,900 this January. On its own this is sensational jaw dropping news however long time observers of the Kelowna housing market will know that January 2009 was the worst month as far as anyone can remember in terms of unit sales. Thank goodness prices stopped falling that month because it would have psychologically disheartening to have had the average sale price drop into the $300's. It is encouraging to see prices increase by over $100,000 in a year though but we have to be level headed about this.
This trend of month-to-month increases will likely continue all year (certainly for the first 6 months) even with new mortgage rules and the Harmonized Sales Tax staring us down.
Contact Jo-Ann or I if you want to receive info on current foreclosures, Canada Mortgage and Housing forecasts or HST. Thanks for reading.
Andrew Smith