Interior real estate statistics show more inventory, balanced market possible – Kelowna News

Real estate inventory continued its climb in the B.C. Interior last month, which means the region appears to be heading toward a balanced market.

Association of Interior Realtors released its May data on Wednesday, and it showed a market that was much cooler than last year’s but still registered a solid number of sales. There were 1,512 sales in May across the AIR region, which includes the Okanagan, Kamloops, Kootenays and South Peace River.

“Market activity last month has risen compared to the month before,” AIR president Kaytee Sharon said in a press release. “However, it’s not surprising that this year’s May activity is lower than last year’s, considering the market was fairly heated a year ago. This is a pretty typical level of market activity that one would expect to see in the spring months.

“There seems to be a return of consumer confidence, with the gap between buyers’ and sellers’ expectations narrowing. That has helped ramp up market activity after a muted first quarter.”

There were 3,618 new residential listings last month, which was nearly 16% more than May 2023. The number of active listings compared to last year at this time was up a whopping 43.2%. Nowhere was that higher than in the Central Okanagan, where active listings were 58% higher than May 2023.

“With a healthy dose of inventory, we are seeing more balanced market conditions after years of the pendulum mostly swinging in the direction of a sellers’ market,” Sharon said.

The inventory injection meant benchmark prices stayed relatively the same from April to May. The single-family benchmark in the Central Okanagan increased slightly, to $1.015 million, while the townhouse ($724,300) and condominium-apartment ($507,500) figures both fell.

The North Okanagan single-family ($765,400) and townhouse ($591,600) benchmarks both jumped, but the condo-apartment price fell to $325,100.

The benchmarks of all three housing types in the South Okanagan increased in May, with the single-family mark hitting $783,500, while the Kamloops single-family and townhouse prices both dropped last month. The Kamloops condo-apartment price jumped only $500 to $373,900.