October 2021 – Is the market cooling off this fall?
In September 2021, we saw a 25% decrease in residential property sales over the previous year, and our total listing inventory dropped by nearly 47% to 1,122 total listings. Decreases in Sales as well as Inventory mean that we are still sitting solidly in a Seller’s market. Depending on the type of property, though, things may not be quite as crazy as they were a few months ago. Out-of-town buyers continue to snap up homes, but the frequency of mass offers is greatly diminished though not altogether finished. Well priced homes still sell quickly but we are seeing some price reductions on those pushing prices just a little too much. Average and median prices remain up – overall average price (all residential property categories combined) was 15% above last year, landing at $803,126.
The table below shows the breakdown on where the 549 total monthly sales came from, and shows the total inventory levels for each property category.
On average, it is taking right around 36 days to sell a home, depending on the property type.
Single Family Home Market Update
In the Single Family Home bracket we saw a sales decrease of about 31% over September of last year. Although sales decreased, we are still holding steadily in a seller’s market when you couple that with the 41.48% decrease in inventory.
The average price for a Single Family Home in September continued to rise above the Million Dollar mark for the third month in a row, rolling in at $1,034,238!
Townhouse Market Update
The townhouse market is also still going strong despite a decrease in sales of 38.52% over last September. We also saw a nearly 56% reduction in inventory. The average sale price finished at $675,248 – an increase of 19.75% over the average from the same month last year.
Condo Market Update
The condo market has seen a small decrease in sales in comparison to this time last year. As with the other home categories we continue to see large decreases in inventory this year over last. The sales decreased by 5.29% while the inventory decreased by 61.49%!
Supply & Demand
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 Buyer’s Market
We’ve been tracking the Months of Inventory – the graph below outlines how the first 9 months of 2021 have been going compared to the same time periods in the past 3 years. You will notice a difference – in 2020 there were 2.9 months of inventory whereas this year we are seeing only 2! This means if no new properties were listed, in just over 8 weeks, every single home in Kelowna would be sold and there would be nothing left to buy!
What does all this mean? Is now the time to make a move? I would love to discuss what may be right for you – Please feel free to reach out any time!
