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March 2020 Central Okanagan Real Estate Market Update

March 2020 – How’s the Market?

Well, there is certainly lots to talk about this month…the above video is a little longer than usual, but there was a lot of information to discuss!

The 2020 year was off to an incredible start…we were seeing increased sales activity, and lower inventory levels across the board…everything was beginning to heat up nicely!

The real estate market in the Lower Mainland was starting to boom again, seeing frequent multiple offer situations. Generally speaking, what happens in Vancouver typically happens in the Okanagan about 6 months later…so this Spring/Summer had all of the pieces in place for a stellar year.

​Then we started to see a number of issues, starting with the Strata Insurance premium and deductible level hikes (learn more about that HERE ), pipeline protests and railway blockades, and then the Covid 19 outbreak of course. The above video discusses all of these factors and how we are seeing them play into our real estate market, as well as my feelings on how the rest of the year is going to go …take a look!


Market Overview

In February 2020, we saw a 7.6% increase in sales activity overall, and a 7% reduction in inventory, which has helped even out the supply and demand factors in to a balanced market. With the increase in activity, our average and median homes prices have increased by 10-12% respectively! ​

The table below shows the breakdown on where the 283 total monthly sales came from, and shows the total inventory levels for each property category!

​Over all it is taking 8-10 weeks to sell a property, and the market conditions in all of the property categories remain fairly balanced.

​What remains to be seen, is the true impact of the Covid 19 outbreak…we will have a clearer picture of that when we review our March and April numbers, so stay tuned.


Single Family Home Update

The Single Family Home property category covers a huge price spectrum…so while our numbers indicate we are in a slight Buyer’s market…in actuality, the lower priced homes are incredibly active, while the luxury market remains quite soft! Overall, we are seeing 3.39% more sales and a 7.3% reduction to our inventory levels, causing our average and median prices to jump up over the previous year!


Townhouse market update

The townhouse market remains very strong! As single family home prices rise, we are seeing increased activity in the townhouse market as they are a good option for young families to get onto the property ladder. The townhouse market saw a 31% increase in sales and a 12% reduction in inventory, causing the supply and demand numbers to balance out and put some upward pressure on prices, to the tune of 9%!


​Condo market update

The condo market continues to out perform the townhomes and single family properties, which will be largely related to price point. Our Months of Inventory (MOI) has returned to Seller’s market levels after seeing an 11% increase in sales and a 2% reduction in active listings. This has caused some condo price increases – the average condo price is up 10% over last year!

It will be very interesting to see how the condo market responds to not only the Covid 19 outbreak, but also the strata insurance premium increases across the Province. However, with all of this in mind, it is still the easiest price point for most buyers to get into the market…as always, time will tell!


Supply & demand

We’ve been tracking the Months of Inventory – the graph below outlines how the first 2 months of 2020 had been going compared to the same time periods in 2019 and 2018.

The 2018 year started off strong and then really slowed down in the second half…2019 did the exact opposite!  So far this year, we started off at 7.9 Months of inventory in January, and we saw that drop to 6.8 months of inventory last month.

The months of inventory levels are our best way to determine the strength or weakness of the market…and to recap our benchmarks:

  • Less than 4 Months of Inventory is a Seller’s Market
  • 4 to 6 Months of Inventory is a Balanced Market
  • More than 6 Months of Inventory is a Buyers Market

Our expectation is that once we come out the other side of the Coronavirus situation, we are going to find ourselves in a Seller’s market as the demand builds up over the coming weeks/months.


Despite the Covid 19 virus situation, we are still open for business! I have been utilizing video, 360 virtual tours, electronic document signing, video and great photography for years and can give our listings amazing exposure, despite the social distancing protocols in place.

Serious buyers are still shopping – If you have plans of selling in 2020, let’s jump on a conference call or video chat, and we can put together a game plan to help!

And as always, if there is anything we can do to help at all – please reach out! I know all of our lives have been impacted..so if I can help out in any other way, just ask!

We’ll get through this together – have a great day! 🙂

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