Owning a home of any kind in Kelowna is now out of reach for most people, according to a housing assessment conducted by the Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO).
In the assessment, the RDCO states the median income for couples in Kelowna, said to be $82,000 annually as of 2015, cannot help them afford to buy a townhouse or single-detached house without spending more than 30 per cent of their income on their mortgage.
It’s even worse for single-parent or single-person households as the report found there are no affordable home options for purchase based on the average price, including condos.
“The community is growing rapidly, and housing affordability is a challenge for people across the board,” said James Moore, City of Kelowna’s policy planning manager.
“I don’t think, as this assessment paints, that’s going to change anytime soon.“
Rentals are more affordable, according to the report, as couples can typically afford most types of rental housing. But for single-person households, they can only afford to rent a studio or one-bedroom dwelling, in Kelowna.
“The City of Kelowna is a location where prices tend to be even more accelerated, even more than our region’s counterparts,” said Moore.
At this point, West Kelowna is said to be the most affordable community for purchasing property in the Central Okanagan, but according to the report, couples with the median income in that community ($90,000 annually) can still only afford to buy a condo to stay within 30 per cent of their gross incomes.
Townhomes and houses remain out of their reach.
Lone-parent or single-person households can’t afford any real estate in West Kelowna, according to the report.
Overall, the regional district said it’s expecting the Central Okanagan’s population to grow by 60,000 people by 2036, which means around 26,000 additional homes, of all kinds, will be needed.
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“The Central Okanagan is one of the fastest-growing regions in the province, and even with more housing units being built, there is still a lack of affordable housing to meet the needs of the community,” said Danika Dudzik, a RDCO senior planner.
The City of Kelowna and the RDCO say they will be using the information from the report to better prepare for the future.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
