Smith McLellan Group

Looking at the Kelowna real estate market after the first 6 weeks paints two very different pictures.  Overall, it's looking a lot like last year. There were 176 residential and 102 condo sales in the first 6 weeks of 2012.  The average residential price this year is $445,000 and it was $469,000 for the same period last year.  There were five homes selling over $1 million early last year and only 3 so far in 2012.   Condo sales are off slightly at $289,000 this year from $294,000 last year.

There is still a lot of inventory waiting to be sold with 1,718 residential homes currently for sale and 1,381 condominiums.

The bad news first....If you look at the high end of our market, there are 528 homes priced over $700,000 and only 12 sales for the first 6 weeks of this year. There were 107 sales in this category for the last half of 2011 making this segment of the market a buyers market and it will likely be that way for some time.  There has bo be downward pressure on prices in the more expensive neighbourhood of our city as sellers lose patients with few showings and buyers have little urgency, even once they see the "perfect" house.

Now the good news....It's a much different story in the more affordable $250,000 to $400,000 range.  There have been 85 sales recorded over the first 6 weeks of 2012 (75 solds 2011)  and only 385 active listings for sale as of today.  In this market buyers really do have to act once they see a home they like because well priced homes are moving relatively quickly.

There is an alarming number of foreclosures on the market.  There have been 80 new foreclosures since the beginning of the year bringing the total up to 170. There were 165 foreclosure sales in 2011 which means most of these homes eventually sell.  For a point of comparison, there were only 12 foreclosure sales in all of 2006.  The current list of foreclosures are located in all corners of Kelowna, in all price ranges, from Big White Ski Resort to lakefront in the mission.   Let me know if you want a list of these homes.

Andy Smith  www.okanaganbc.com

There were 10 or so of our athletes who traveled up from Kelowna to participate in the Salmon Arm Kids-of-Steel triathlon held last weekend up in Salmon Arm.  Kierra was disappointed that she had to miss out for the first time in 4 years but pneumonia slowed her down a lot.  Emmet was a green light though and finished 5th in his age group.    Not bad for someone who never seems to train for these things instead kicks a soccer ball around every free second.