Image Credit: SUBMITTED/B.C. Assessment
March 03, 2020 – 12:05 PM
If you’ve been thinking of selling your house in Kamloops, now may be the right time to list.
According to the monthly data for February released by the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association, the price for a single-family dwelling jumped significantly last month.
Home sales in the Kamloops and the surrounding area were up by 4.9 percent in February with 189 houses changing hands, compared to 180 during the same month last year.
Wendy Runge, president of the real estate association, says the big news is the price of single-family homes. The average single-family home last February went for $460,268, but this year saw a jump of 14 per cent, bringing the average cost to $530,303.
Runge says it could be the highest monthly average price for single-family homes in Kamloops.
“I can say with fair certainty that this is the highest it’s ever been,” Runge says.
Runge believes part of the reason for the increase in single-family home prices is due to a slightly low number of active listings available.
“I think we’re going to continue to an upward trend (in prices) until we can reach the inventory levels to create more of a balanced market,” Runge says.
Despite the worry of not enough homes on the market, last month the housing inventory increased as 336 homes hit the market, 30 per cent more than the month previous. Although inventory saw a spike, the number of active listings grew only by two percent from the same time last year. At the end of the month, there were 936 active listings still on the market, compared to 918 at the same time last year.
Runge says the slight inventory increase is encouraging but says it is not enough to meet their projected targets. She says the inventory numbers are good for those looking to sell but could be a stressor for potential buyers.
“The inventory is getting up there but we’re still really behind in where we should be in our ten-year average. The inventory continues to pose a problem for buyers and so that’s what is putting the pressure on pricing right now,” Runge says.
Though the price of single-family homes increased by 14 per cent, Runge says the increase for all residential home sales, including condo, mobile homes and other units, did not see a significant change.
“Overall, the average price overall has only increased by a few percentages, and thats including all types of homes, condos, townhouses, mobile homes, things like that,” Runge says. “It was the single-family homes that was kind of the big increase.”
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