The strong rally by the Kamloops real estate market has continued, with an 53 per cent bump in sales in October over the same time last year and the best October on record over the past 10 years.
“For the fifth month running, we’ve reached record-setting sales in Kamloops,” said Wendy Runge, president of the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association.
Trending Stories
In fact, Runge is wondering if there might be two more record months in Kamloops’ future.
In September, Kamloops saw 332 residential units sold, which was also the best September on record. The case is much the same for October, with 337 residential units sold.
On average, this past October saw an average sales price of $466,113, an increase of 8.9 per cent over last year and about $27,000 less than September’s average sales price.
Despite the coming months looking good as far as records go, Runge noted they are typically slow, when people do not want to sell their homes.
“But this year is unlike anything we’ve seen before,” she said.
Aside from March, April and May, 2020 has looked a lot like 2019, although this year has outperformed last year since June.
Kamloops home owners also added 348 new listings in October, outpacing sales and slowly replenishing the region’s low inventory of housing stock.
“Our inventory levels will stabilize over time. We’re currently adding more listings than we’re selling, and these numbers will only improve. More than inventory, I think it is the demand for single-family homes in the region that’s driving the average prices to increase by five to seven per cent every month since COVID restrictions were lifted in July,” Runge said.
Year-to-date sales are by and large normal, down one per cent in Kamloops, 8.5 per cent in Merritt, 3.7 per cent in Ashcroft and 3.7 per cent in Chase. Logan Lake and area is the only region that saw an increase, up 6.1 per cent with four more sales over 2019.
